Mercury dynamics in a changing coastal area over industrial and postindustrial phases: Lessons from the Venice Lagoon

Abstract During the industrial period, significant amounts of mercury (Hg) were discharged into the Venice Lagoon. Here, a spatially explicit model was implemented to reconstruct the temporal evolution of the total mercury (HgT) and methylmercury (MeHgT) concentrations in lagoon water and sediments over two centuries (1900–2100), from preindustrial to postindustrial phases. The model simulates the transport and transformations of particulate and dissolved Hg species. It is forced with time-variable Hg inputs and environmental conditions, including scenarios of future atmospheric deposition, reconstructed according to local and global socioeconomic scenarios. Since 1900, ∼36 Mg of HgT and ∼380 kg of MeHgT were delivered to the lagoon, and stored in the sediments. The deposition of Hg from the water to the seafloor increased during a period of eutrophication (1980s); however, the reverse fluxes increased during a period of high sediment resuspension caused by the unregulated fishing of Manila clams (1990s). In the current postindustrial phase, the lagoon sediments have acted as a secondary source to the lagoon waters, delivering Hg (∼38 kg y−1) and MeHg (∼0.07 kg y−1). The MeHg inputs from the watershed (∼0.28 kg y−1) appear to be higher than the secondary fluxes from the sediments. The estimated HgT export to the Adriatic Sea is ∼56 kg y−1. Since HgT and MeHgT outputs slightly exceed inputs, the concentrations are slowly decreasing. While the decreasing trend is maintained in all scenarios, the future level of atmospheric deposition will affect Hg concentrations and sediment recovery times. Though limited by inherent simplifications, this work results show that the reconstruction of historical dynamics using a holistic approach, supported by data, can improve our understanding of the pollutants distribution and the quantification of local emissions. Downscaling from trends predicted at the global scale taking into account for regional differences seems useful to investigate the pollutants fate.