Mercury isotopes in North Pacific sediments reveal vegetation expansion in warm climates

Mercury (Hg) concentrations and isotope compositions in sedimentary rocks are widely used to trace volcanism, but their natural variabilities through climate changes remain to be fully understood. Here, we present Hg isotope records from the North Pacific Shatsky Rise, a region without direct terrestrial input, to reconstruct the evolution of open ocean Hg isotopes. During the early Holocene (11–8 ka), the sedimentary Δ199Hg increased from 0.16 ‰ to 0.21 ‰, along with the increase in δ13C of CO2 caused by the expansion of terrestrial vegetation. A higher Δ199Hg (0.23 ‰) is also observed during the warm Pliocene (3.8–2.5 Ma) with higher terrestrial productivity. By constructing a time dependent global Hg box model, we demonstrate that the higher open ocean Δ199Hg in warm climates reflects enhanced atmospheric Hg(0) uptake by terrestrial vegetation. This is likely driven by vegetation expansion and/or biome shifts, which absorb more gaseous Hg with lower Δ199Hg.

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Publication Details

Journal
Geochemical Perspectives Letters
Published
2025-09-01
DOI
https://doi.org/10.7185/geochemlet.2534
Primary Topic
Mercury impact and mitigation studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Mercury isotopes in North Pacific sediments reveal vegetation expansion in warm climates

Dongdong Shi, Rong Hu, Hong Qian, Ren Sun et al.
Geochemical Perspectives Letters
Mercury impact and mitigation studies
article

Mercury isotopes in North Pacific sediments reveal vegetation expansion in warm climates

Dongdong Shi, Rong Hu, Hong Qian, Ren Sun, Yuejin Yang, Xiaozhi Yang, Ying Qu, Zheng Cao, Jiquan Chen, Xi Chen, Tao Chen, Shaohua Li, Jiancheng Zheng
article en

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) concentrations and isotope compositions in sedimentary rocks are widely used to trace volcanism, but their natural variabilities through climate changes remain to be fully understood. Here, we present Hg isotope records from the North Pacific Shatsky Rise, a region without direct terrestrial input, to reconstruct the evolution of open ocean Hg isotopes. During the early Holocene (11–8 ka), the sedimentary Δ199Hg increased from 0.16 ‰ to 0.21 ‰, along with the increase in δ13C of CO2 caused by the expansion of terrestrial vegetation. A higher Δ199Hg (0.23 ‰) is also observed during the warm Pliocene (3.8–2.5 Ma) with higher terrestrial productivity. By constructing a time dependent global Hg box model, we demonstrate that the higher open ocean Δ199Hg in warm climates reflects enhanced atmospheric Hg(0) uptake by terrestrial vegetation. This is likely driven by vegetation expansion and/or biome shifts, which absorb more gaseous Hg with lower Δ199Hg.

Geochemical Perspectives LettersVol. 36
Tianjin University (CN), Xiamen University (CN), Nanjing University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, Nutrition Obesity Research Center, University of North Carolina, National Key Research and Development Program of China
Openalex Percentile: Top 67%
Mercury impact and mitigation studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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