Time: 11am to 1pm AEDT
Date: Tuesday, 5 March 2024
Venue: Room 3.253, HC Coombs Building & Online via Zoom
Meeting ID: 813 1626 7344
Passcode: 787479
Speaker: Rodger (Rujia) Yan
Mercury naturally exists in the terrestrial and marine ecosystems, cycling through the environment. Volcanism, bushfires, and ocean deposition keep mercury in the atmosphere at an equilibrium. However, anthropogenic activities such as mining, coal burning, and land clearing have accelerated the mercury emission rate in the last 200 years. To further complicate this, the intensification of the southern westerly wind since the 1950 CE has enabled mercury to reach sub-Antarctica islands.
In this TPR, Rujia will report on recent progress in their study of atmospheric deposition of mercury, focusing on King Island, Tasmania, Macquarie Island and the Patagonia region. To do so, they combine historical, geochemical, palynological and computational knowledge, aiming to disentangle the many natural and anthropogenic factors that affect the mercury cycle in the environment, while sharing their experience at different institutes they have visited during their study and research and the reflection of attending the 5th conference of the parties of the Minamata Convention on Mercury.