Abstract:
As part of GEOTRACES, Canada initiated an Arctic GEOTRACES program in 2013. In 2015, the Canadian Arctic GEOTRACES team spent eight weeks of ship-time aboard the Canadian Research Icebreaker CCGS Amundsen, undertaking a comprehensive study of trace elements and isotopes, as well as various aspects of physical, chemical and biological oceanography of the Canadian Arctic. In this presentation, I will provide an overview of the Canadian Arctic GEOTRACES program. The emphasis will be on our recent discovery of a sub-surface methylmercury enrichment layer in Arctic seawater, and its implications for mercury contamination in Arctic marine ecosystems in a changing climate.

Bio:
Dr. Feiyue Wang is Professor of Environmental Chemistry and Biogeochemistry at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada. He holds a Canada Research Chair (Tier 1) in Arctic Environmental Chemistry, and an Honorary Professorship at Aarhus University, Denmark. Dr. Wang’s research interests include molecular-level interactions of contaminants across environmental interfaces, and global-scale interplay between chemical contamination and climate change. His recent research has focussed on mercury biogeochemistry in Arctic marine ecosystems, and on environmental chemistry of the rapidly changing Arctic sea ice environment. He has authored and co-authored more than 130 scientific papers in peer-reviewed journals and books.
Dr. Wang directs the Ultra-Clean Trace Elements Laboratory (UCTEL), and is Chief Scientist of the Sea-ice Environmental Research Facility (SERF) and the Oil-in-Sea-Ice Mesocosm (OSIM) of the Churchill Marine Observatory (CMO). He serves as a member of the United Nations Environments Project Coordination Group for the Global Mercury Assessment. He is also Past Chair of the Environment Division of the Chemical Institute of Canada. Dr. Wang received his B.Sc. from Wuhan University in 1990 and Ph.D. from Peking University in 1995.