Authors' Summary: Vegetation uptake is one of largest sinks of atmospheric mercury (Hg) from the atmosphere and a major source of Hg to soils. We better quantify its importance to the global biogeochemical Hg cycle by updating an atmospheric chemistry model with information from newly available measurement datasets.

Our revised dry deposition scheme yields improved model agreement with atmospheric Hg seasonality in Northern midlatitudes and Hg concentrations in South America.

We calculate a dry deposition flux to land that is approximately double previous model estimates. Using our revised model, we also illustrate the potential importance of land-atmosphere feedbacks: the conversion of the Amazon rainforest to savannah leads to an additional transfer of 283 Mg Hg each year to the ocean due to a reduced land sink.