Mercury in an Adirondack Terrestrial and Wetland System
Abstract
The terrestrial cycling of mercury has been studied at Sunday Lake watershed in the Adirondack region of New York State. This study has focused on two forest sites (a coniferous and a deciduous stand) and a wetland site, and involves measurements of total mercury and methyl mercury in through-fall, leaf litter, soil, soil water, and groundwater. Preliminary results indicate that total mercury in through-fall varied with vegetation type. Higher concentrations of total mercury were evident in through-fall at the coniferous site (3.0-38.2 ng/L, average 23.7 ng/L HgT) than at the deciduous site (1.0-3.8 ng/L, average 2.0 ng/L HgT). Soil concentrations varied with horizon but not significantly between sites. Soil mercury concentrations were highest in the forest floor (13.2-188.9 ng/g) and Bh horizon (3.7-67.5 ng/g), lower in the Bs horizon (2.7-47.5 ng/g), and lowest in the E horizon (3.9-25.2 ng/g). Concentrations of total mercury from the soil solutions were highest in forest floor leachate (9.8-41.8 ng/L) and decreased through the Bh horizon (0.9-13.9 ng/L) and Bs horizons (0.9-11.0 ng/L) at both sites. Methyl mercury concentrations in the soil solutions were low and/or not detectable throughout the soil profiles at both sites. The total mercury and methyl mercury concentrations in wetland groundwaters varied greatly ranging from 1.1 ng/L to 10.6 ng/L for total mercury and 0.5 ng/L to 6.5 ng/L for methyl mercury
- Publication:
-
AGU Spring Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- May 2001
- Bibcode:
- 2001AGUSM...B32A19K
- Keywords:
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- 1615 Biogeochemical processes (4805);
- 1890 Wetlands