Balance of mercury in Lake Baikal and environment of Siberia

We report the refined regional balance of mercury for Siberia with due acco unt of the clear separation of flows in the system (Siberia) and between th e system and its surrounding (the rest regions of the Earth). The obtained values of mercury supply into the environment of Siberia (340 and 400 +/- x tons/year) disagree with previous literature data (210 and 270 tons/year, respectively). When estimating wet and dry precipitation on the territory o f Siberia on the basis of data (taken as standard) of the known Brussels ex pedition on Baikal, the calculated total supply decreases from 400 +/- x to 330 +/- x tons/year. We have also analyzed the mercury budget for Baikal ( as a very deep lake, i.e., having a uniquely great ratio of the total volum e of water to water table) and shallow Little Rock Lake (Canada), which all owed estimation and comparison of their stationarity and buffering in relat ion to the flows and amount of mercury. It was found that, unlike Baikal, s hallow lakes have low buffering capacity and any appreciably fluctuation of mercury supply can rapidly change its concentration in a basin, restoring a stationary state.