Every 2 years, since the first meeting in Gävle, Sweden, in 1990, the ICMGP convenes researchers, policy-makers, and industrial organizations in diverse locations around the world to discuss important advances in mercury research and facilitate international collaborations. ICMGP 2015 was held in Jeju, Republic of Korea, on June 14–19 and represented the first meeting since the 2013 signing of the Minamata Convention on Mercury, a global treaty to protect human health and the environment from the adverse effects of mercury.
ORNL scientists Baohua Gu and Alexander Johs attended the meeting and hosted a special session (along with Tamar Barkay at Rutgers University) titled Effects of Coupled Microbiological and Geochemical Interactions on Mercury Speciation, Uptake, and Methylation. Description of the session follows:
"Both biological and geochemical processes determine the rate of net methylmercury production in the environment. Global mercury (Hg) cycling and its impacts on human and environmental health are determined by a complex interplay between abiotic reactions, microbial transformations, and bioaccumulation. A multidisciplinary approach is required to identify key factors that control these processes. This session focuses on coupled microbiological and geochemical interactions affecting Hg chemical speciation, mobility, microbial uptake, and methylation in both natural and contaminated marine and freshwater ecosystems. Topics may include, but are not limited to, recent advances in biogeochemical transformations of mercury (e.g., redox reactions, methylation, and demethylation), biochemical pathways and mechanisms, biomolecular and genetic research, marine and freshwater bioaccumulation of Hg, and novel analytical tools including modeling approaches from molecular to global scales."
The keynote presentation for the session was given by Ulf Skyllberg from the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences. Other speakers included Alexandre Poulain (University of Ottawa); Nourredine Bousserrhine (EES-Paris. UPEC; Equipe DIIM); Sofi Jonsson (University of Connecticut); Dr. Gu (ORNL); and graduate student Daniel Steven Grégoire (University of Ottawa), who received an award from the conference committee for his presentation.
There was significant interest in the mercury research conducted at ORNL, specifically with respect to identification and characterization of the methylation genes hgcA and hgcB, abiotic mercury transformations, and mercury interactions with cell surfaces. Drs. Gu and Johs discussed collaborative opportunities with numerous researchers, most notably, keynote speaker Ulf Skyllberg, Lars-Eric Heimbürger (University of Bremen, Germany), Xinbin Feng (State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, China), Alexandre Poulain (University of Ottawa, Canada), Thomas Giegerich (Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Germany), Erik Bjorn (Umea University, Sweden), Shuxiao Wang and Jiming Hao (Tsinghua University, China), Dang Fei (Chinese Academy of Sciences), and Huang Zhong (Nanjing University, China). Discussion topics included:
In addition to fundamental scientific research on mercury biogeochemistry and mercury control technologies, the implementation of the Minamata Convention on Mercury and impacts of mercury exposure on humans were central topics of the conference. A delegation from the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) discussed environmental policies that aim to reduce global mercury emissions and solicited scientific contributions and institutional partnerships to support convention goals.
Security Notice | Contact Eric Pierce, ORNL | Website Questions | Site Map
File last modified: Tuesday, February 04, 2020
The ORNL Mercury SFA is sponsored by the Subsurface Biogeochemical Research (SBR) program within the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.