Mercury Stored in Coastal Sediments Is Making a Comeback_188体育app_188体育在线-平台官网

Rebecca Irelan
Tue, 11 Nov 2025 08:00 -0500

Buried deep in the sediments of the world’s coastal shelves, the toxic metal mercury has, to some degree, been locked away from entering the marine food chain. Now, a study co-authored by a UNH researcher indicates that more frequent coastal storms and an uptick in dredging and bottom-trawling fishing in the coastal shelves are resuspending the mercury that has long been trapped in those sediments, bringing it back up into the marine water column. This is a major shift, scientists say, where coastal shelves might no longer serve as mercury “sinks” – a place where more of it is stored than released — and are now becoming a major source of the legacy mercury that was originally released into the environment decades or even a century ago. UNH Affiliate Research Professor Tom Bianchi (left)...