Abstract

The Greenland Ice Sheet is currently not accounted for in Arctic budgets of the toxic element mercury, despite large and increasing annual runoff to the ocean and the socio-economic concerns of high mercury levels in Arctic organisms. During this seminar I will present geochemical and microbiological data from seasonal sampling of meltwater rivers and fjords in southwestern Greenland to show that environmentally elevated concentrations of mercury are likely present. I will discuss the possible sources of this mercury and assess the wider implications of mercury mobilisation from the cryosphere in the Arctic.

Bio

I am a biogeochemist with an interest in the flow of elements through polar and alpine systems. My research covers subglacial biogeochemical weathering processes, and the flow and transformation of nutrients and toxic elements between and across aquatic critical zones. Much of this research to date has been centered on field-based data/sample collection and experimentation in remote environments (terrestrial and near-coastal), lab-based analytical chemistry, and mineralogical analysis. I am interested in applying a combination of novel research methodologies to answer complex scientific questions, for example mass spectrometry for elemental analysis (e.g., ICP-MS), X-ray spectroscopy for elemental speciation (e.g., synchrotron-based scanning X-ray microscopy), wet chemical analysis (e.g., spectrophotometric measurement of nutrients) and utilizing sensor technology to monitor hydrochemistry in a range of environments, moving aquatic biogeochemistry from the lab into the field (e.g., novel lab-on-chip chemical sensors). I received my PhD in Geographical Sciences from the University of Bristol in 2015 and was a research associate in Bristol until 2018 working with Prof Jemma Wadham. From 2018-2021 I was a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Global Fellow at GFZ-Potsdam and Florida State University working on samples from the SALSA subglacial lake drilling project in the USA. I was appointed as Assistant Professor in Earth and Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania in January 2022.

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