Environmental impact factors and mercury speciation in the sediment along Fujian and eastern Guangdong coasts
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Environmental impact factors and mercury speciation in the sediment along Fujian and eastern Guangdong coasts ZHANG Yuanbiao1,2 , HUO Yunlong2 , LIU Xiyao1 , KUANG Weiming2 , YUAN Dongxing1∗ , JI Weidong2 1 2
State Key Laboratory of Marine Environmental Science, Xiamen University, Xiamen 361005, China; Third Institute of Oceanography State Oceanic Administration, Xiamen 361005, China
Received 5 July 2011; accepted 28 November 2011 ©The Chinese Society of Oceanography and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2013
Abstract Concentrations of total mercury (THg) and methyl mercury (MeHg) were determined for 32 surface sediments collected along the coastal line of Fujian Province and eastern Guangdong Province. The spatial distributions of THg and MeHg and their environmental impact factors were investigated. The average concentrations of THg and MeHg in the sediments were 31.5 ng/g and 0.096 ng/g, respectively. Both sediment THg and MeHg concentrations showed relatively high value in the Minjiang Estuary and the coastal areas of Quanzhou and Putian. The concentrations overall decreased as the distance to the shoreline increased. The correlations among environmental impact factors and THg, MeHg were analyzed. The sediment THg concentration was highly correlated to the concentrations of organic matter, copper, total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP), and significantly correlated to pH value of the bottom seawater and concentration of sediment sulfide. The sediment MeHg concentration was highly correlated to the concentrations of organic matter and copper, and significant correlated to the concentrations of sulfide, TN, TP and pH value of the bottom seawater. Key words: mercury, methyl mercury, coastal area, sediment, speciation Citation: Zhang Yuanbiao, Huo Yunlong, Liu Xiyao, Kuang Weiming, Yuan Dongxing, Ji Weidong. 2013. Environmental impact factors and mercury speciation in the sediment along Fujian and eastern Guangdong coasts. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 32(2): 76–80, doi: 10.1007/s13131-013-0279-3
1 Introduction Mercury is one of the most studied heavy metals in the field of environmental pollution research, mainly due to its toxicity and high mobility in the environment (Jitaru and Adams, 2004). Among the organic mercury species methyl mercury (MeHg) is the dominant form and one of the most toxic compounds (Scheuhammer, 1991). After being released into sea, mercury can be transferred to the sediments by adsorption onto suspended matters and subsequently sedimentation. Inorganic mercury and MeHg accumulated in the sediment can be utilized by benthic organisms and thus enter the food chain (Fitzgerald et al., 1998). Furthermore, mercury in sediment will be released back to the overlying seawater under favorable conditions, therefore, sediment is considered as an important alternative pollution source for seawater, especially when the terrestrial pollution sources are under a valid control (Shan et al., 2006; He et al., 2008). Mercury is mainly discharged into the environment due to the anthropogenic activities
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