Mercury forms in contaminated environmental samples were studied by means of sequential extraction and thermal desorption from the solid phase. The sequential extraction procedure involved the following fractions: water soluble mercury, mercury extracted in acidic conditions, mercury bound to humic substances, elemental Hg and mercury bound to complexes, HgS, and residual mercury. In addition to sequential extraction, the distribution of mercury species as a function of soil particles size was studied. The thermal desorption method is based on the thermal decomposition or desorption of Hg compounds at different temperatures. The following four species were observed: Hg0, HgCl2, HgS and Hg(II) bound to humic acids. The Hg release curves from artificial soils and real samples were obtained and their applicability to the speciation analysis was considered. [...]
Abiotic parameters (pH, temperature, current velocity, mercury species concentration, and sediment and aqueous media composition) influence mercury species (MeHg+, EtHg+, PhHg+ and inorganic Hg2+) adsorption on river sediments. The highest amount of adsorbed MeHg+ and EtHg+ (82–93% and 85–91% for static and agitated system, respectively) occurred at pH 3–4. For PhHg+ the maximum adsorption (90% and 95% for static and agitated systems) was located over the broad 3–10 pH range, while for Hg2+ (94% and 97% for static and agitated systems) it was at pH ∼ 3. Temperature (4.5–60°C) influenced the adsorption rate but not the quantity. Both rate and quantity increased in the order: static 2+ adsorption about 67%. Cations at pH 5.2 reduced either the adsorption rate (Ca2+, Al3+) or the total adsorption (Zn2+, Fe3+). Positive correlations were found between sediment C, N, S content as well as cation exchange capacity (CEC) with mercury adsorption (R = 0.45–0.66, 0.56–0.89, 0.45–0.61 and 0.55–0.73, respectively) while negative correlations were observed with Fe and Al (R = −0.63 to −0.90 and −0.65 to −0.86, respectively). [...]
The determination of mercury in fish typically involves analysis of muscles. For predicting the concentration of mercury in fish muscle on the basis of the analysis of fish scales or fins, the relationship between total mercury concentrations in fish muscles and in fish scales and fins was studied. Mercury content in fish muscles, scales and fins was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry with thermal decomposition of the sample in a flow of oxygen. A number of scale treatments were applied in order to remove impurities and to enhance the prediction quality. For scale treatment, 40 min of washing with DI water in an ultrasonic bath is recommended. A coefficient of determination r2= 0.93 for the relationship between Hg concentrations in muscles and scales was achieved for 40 fish among the different fish species tested (European bream, perch, roach) from the Hamry Reservoir, Czech Republic. With respect to fin sampling, the coefficient of determination r2 for these fish was 0.86. The analysis of fish scales and caudal fins is a useful screening tool for assessing the relative mercury contamination of monitored fish. The method of sampling scales is not suitable for fish species with small scales such as brown trout. [...]
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