Responses of deposition and bioaccumulation in the Great Lakes region to policy and other large-scale drivers of mercury emissions

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-23-2018

Department

Department of Civil, Environmental, and Geospatial Engineering; Department of Geological and Mining Engineering and Sciences; Department of Social Sciences

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) emissions pose a global problem that requires global cooperation for a solution. However, neither emissions nor regulations are uniform world-wide, and hence the impacts of regulations are also likely to vary regionally. We report here an approach to model the effectiveness of regulations at different scales (local, regional, global) in reducing Hg deposition and fish Hg concentrations in the Laurentian Great Lakes (GL) region. The potential effects of global change on deposition are also modeled. We focus on one of the most vulnerable communities within the region, an Indigenous tribe in Michigan's Upper Peninsula (UP) with a high fish consumption rate. For the GL region, elements of global change (climate, biomass burning, land use) are projected to have modest impacts (

Publication Title

Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts

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