Speciated Mercury Monitoring

Ambient concentrations of speciated mercury (Hg) have been measured at many locations across Canada. Mercury in the atmosphere is measured in three operationally-defined forms - gaseous elemental mercury (GEM), reactive gaseous mercury (RGM), and particulate-bound mercury (PBM). Under most conditions, GEM (or Hg0) is the predominant species in the air (~95-99%), while RGM and PBM concentrations are typically two orders of magnitude lower, i.e., lesser than 5% of the total atmospheric mercury concentration (Schroeder and Munthe, 1998). Reactive gaseous mercury is thought to consist of compounds such as HgCl2, HgBr2, Hg(OH)2 (Lin and Pehkonen, 1999), although the exact composition is unknown.

Data and Resources

Additional Info

Field Value
Last Updated April 17, 2026, 19:52 (UTC)
Created April 17, 2026, 19:52 (UTC)
contact_email enviroinfo@ec.gc.ca
contact_person {"en": "Government of Canada; Environment and Climate Change Canada, 1-800-668-6767, ec.enviroinfo.ec@canada.ca", "fr": "Gouvernement du Canada; Environnement et Changement climatique Canada, 1-800-668-6767, ec.enviroinfo.ec@canada.ca"}
criticality_level []
data_dictionary []
geographic_scope ["0"]
open_canada_collection primary
open_canada_date_published 2016-08-10 04:00:00
open_canada_keywords {"en": ["Air quality", "Air", "Air Quality", "Atmospheric Monitoring", "NAtChem", "Networks and Studies", "Speciated Mercury Monitoring", "SMM", "Hg"], "fr": ["Qualité de l'air", "Air", "qualité de l’air", "surveillance atmosphérique", "gaz atmosphériques", "particules atmosphériques", "chimie des précipitations atmosphériques", "combinaison des gaz et des particules atmosphériques", "réseaux et études", "NAtChem", "Surveillance des espèces chimiques de mercure", "SMM", "Hg"]}
open_canada_subject ["nature_and_environment"]
sensitivity_level unrestricted
title_fr Surveillance des espèces chimiques de mercure
update_frequency as_needed