The Influence of Weather Anomalies on Mercury Cycling in the Marine Coastal Zone of the Southern Baltic—Future Perspective

Despite the decreased emission loads of mercury, historical deposits of this metal in various compartments of the environment may become an additional diffuse source in the future. Global climate change manifests itself in the temperate zone in several ways: warmer winters, shorter icing periods, increased precipitation and heightened frequency of extreme events such as strong gales and floods, all of which cause disturbances in the rate and direction of mercury biogeochemical cycling. The present study was conducted at two sites, Oslonino and Gdynia Orlowo (both in the coastal zone of the Gulf of Gdansk), from which samples were collected once a month between January 2012 and December 2012. In the Southern Baltic region, climate changes can certainly enhance coast to basin fluxes of mercury and the transfer of bioavailable forms of this metal to the food web. They may also, in the future, contribute to uncontrollable increases of mercury in the seawater.