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Here, we develop a global model to simulate preindustrial riverine total mercury and assess human perturbations by comparing it to present-day conditions. We find that global rivers transported ~390 megagrams annually of mercury to the oceans in the preindustrial era, with spatial variability. Human activities have elevated riverine mercury budgets by two to three times in the present day. Establishing a baseline riverine mercury level, our findings reveal rapid responses of riverine mercury to human perturbations and could be used to inform targets for global riverine mercury restoration. Total riverine mercury concentrations could also be used as indicators to comprehensively understand the effectiveness of mercury pollution governance.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1126\/sciadv.adw0471","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2025,6,11]],"date-time":"2025-06-11T13:59:04Z","timestamp":1749650344000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.34133\/aaas_crossmark","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":19,"title":["Human perturbations to mercury in global rivers"],"prefix":"10.1126","volume":"11","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-8875-8048","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Dong","family":"Peng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geography and Ocean Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Coast and Island Development, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China."},{"name":"School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5958-2584","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Zeli","family":"Tan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, WA, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Tengfei","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peipei","family":"Wu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-4298-8243","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Zhengcheng","family":"Song","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Peng","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Shaojian","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Atmospheric Sciences, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7770-3466","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Yanxu","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Tulane University, New Orleans, LA, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-9571-5698","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ting","family":"Lei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1220-2326","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Beth A.","family":"Middleton","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"U.S. Geological Survey, Wetland and Aquatic Research Center, Lafayette, LA, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-7146-3035","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jeroen E.","family":"Sonke","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"G\u00e9osciences Environnement Toulouse, CNRS\/IRD\/Universit\u00e9 de Toulouse, Toulouse, France."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Guangchun","family":"Lei","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Ecology and Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, Beijing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5059-9304","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jianhua","family":"Gao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Geography and Ocean Science, Ministry of Education Key Laboratory for Coast and Island Development, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"221","reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_2_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.etap.2005.03.007"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_3_2","first-page":"15","article-title":"Ecosystem mercury recovery and health benefit under the minamata convention in a changing climate","volume":"260","author":"Wu Q.","year":"2022","unstructured":"Q. 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