Mercury is found in both water and air and can be transported on long distances; therefore, it is considered as a global polutant. Due to development of industry mercury concentrations are increased in all environmental compartments. Vapors of elemental mercury are harmful to humans; however, the greatest risk represents methylated mercury, produced by bacteria in sediment. Methylmercury easily biomagnifies and bioaccumulates within the food chain. At highest risk are those people whose main food-source are fish and shellfish. Due to the awareness of mercury toxicity, researches worldwide are trying to explain mercury speciation and evaluate the factors influencing transformations and fluxes of mercury between the environmental compartments, especially in the marine environment. The largest part of fluxes in the Mediterranean Sea represents exchange between the water and air. In the Gulf of Trieste, this is a highly important term of the mass balance. Wind has been considered as the main factor influencing the exchange of mercury between the water and air,. Different models (parameterizations)\ud
based on measurements and experiments have been developed in order to determine the wind impact on the gas exchange. In our study, the same set of input data used to compare different parametrizations resulted in up to three-fold different results. Using only comparison between the models the evaluation of the best and most suitable model was not possible. We also analyzed the effect of wind-averaging: although averaging reduces the wind peaks, the differences in the final results are small
