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- Title
Mercury transfer from soil to olive trees. A comparison of three different contaminated sites.
- Authors
Higueras, Pablo; Amorós, José; Esbrí, José; Pérez-de-los-Reyes, Caridad; López-Berdonces, Miguel; García-Navarro, Francisco
- Abstract
Mercury contents in soil and olive tree leaves have been studied in 69 plots around three different source areas of this element in Spain: Almadén (Ciudad Real), Flix (Tarragona) and Jódar (Jaén). Almadén was the world's largest cinnabar (HgS) mining district and was active until 2003, Flix is the oldest Spanish chlor-alkali plant (CAP) and has been active from 1898 to the present day and Jódar is a decommissioned CAP that was active for 14 years (1977-1991). Total mercury contents have been measured by high-frequency modulation atomic absorption spectrometry with Zeeman effect (ZAAS-HFM) in the soils and olive tree leaves from the three studied areas. The average soil contents range from 182 μg kg in Flix to 23,488 μg kg in Almadén, while the average leaf content ranges from 161 μg kg in Jódar to 1213 μg kg in Almadén. Despite the wide range of data, a relationship between soil-leaf contents has been identified: in Almadén and Jódar, multiplicative (bilogarithmic) models show significant correlations ( R = 0.769 and R = 0.484, respectively). Significant correlations were not identified between soil and leaf contents in Flix. The continuous activity of the Flix CAP, which remains open today, can explain the different uptake patterns for mercury, which is mainly atmospheric in origin, in comparison to the other two sites, where activity ceased more than 10 years ago and only soil uptake patterns based on the Michaelis-Menten enzymatic model curve are observed.
- Subjects
OLIVE; CHLOR-Alkali; ZEEMAN effect; STATISTICAL correlation; MICHAELIS-Menten mechanism; ATOMIC absorption spectroscopy
- Publication
Environmental Science & Pollution Research, 2016, Vol 23, Issue 7, p6055
- ISSN
0944-1344
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s11356-015-4357-2