Dissolved Organic Matter Enhances Hg Bioavailability to a Hg-Methylating Bacterium Under Mildly Sulfidic Conditions
Abstract
Field studies have demonstrated a strong linkage between dissolved organic matter (DOM) quantity and quality and in-situ methylmercury (MeHg) production. The biogeochemical basis for these field observations is unknown however. Here, we investigate the roles of DOM and sulfide in controlling Hg bioavailability to the Hg-methylating bacterium Desulfovibrio desulfuricans ND132 in short-term washed cell assays. At environmentally relevant Hg/DOM ratios (2-4300 ng Hg/mg DOM), MeHg production increased linearly with increasing Suwannee River humic acid (SRHA) concentration, even in the presence of sulfide concentrations (5-10 μM) sufficient to outcompete SRHA for inorganic Hg. The DOM-dependent enhancement in Hg-methylation cannot be attributed to an enhancement of ND132 metabolic activity or alteration of Hg sorption to cells or bottle walls. Equilibrium speciation calculations indicated that cell suspensions were supersaturated with respect to metacinnabar (β-HgS(s)) and that Hg-DOM thiol complexes were relatively minor species. Notably, SRHA addition had no effect on Hg methylation in solutions where Hg-cysteine species predominated and β-HgS(s) precipitation was not predicted. We hypothesize that DOM enhances Hg-methylation by stabilizing HgS(s) colloids or nanoparticles against aggregation and/or by reducing the crystallinty of HgS(s) particles, and that such HgS(s) colloids are bioavailable to Hg-methylating bacteria. Ongoing work in the laboratory is evaluating the role of DOM character (size, aromaticity, reduced S content, etc.) in controlling the extent of the enhancement in MeHg production. These findings highlight the limits of equilibrium speciation approaches to predicting Hg bioavailability to methylating bacteria given the demonstrated significance of Hg-DOM-sulfide interactions in the anoxic environments where methylation occurs. Our laboratory experiments provide additional insight into the role that DOM plays in determining spatial and temporal patterns of MeHg production.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFM.B21L..06G
- Keywords:
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- 0461 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Metals;
- 0463 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Microbe/mineral interactions;
- 0409 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Bioavailability: chemical speciation and complexation