Effects of Microbial Activities on Mercury Methylation in Farmland near Mercury Mining Area

Abstract

In order to study the main effect of microbial activities on mercury(Hg) methylation in farmland, mercury contaminated upland soils and paddy soils near Hg mining area were sampled as experimental soils. Four treatments were designed including only sterilization as the control, accelerating the activities of sulfate reducing bacteria(SRB), inhibiting the SRB's activities, and accelerating the activities of iron-reducing bacteria(FeRB), to know the effects of microbial and non-microbial factors on mercury methylation in soils. The results were as follows:the highest concentration of methylmercury(MeHg) was observed in soils with SRB accelerated treatment, and the increments of MeHg concentrations in upland soils and paddy soils ranged from 0.15 μg·kg-1 to 0.38 μg·kg-1 and 1 μg·kg-1 to 2 μg·kg-1, respectively. Comparatively, little increments of MeHg concentration were seen in soils with SRB inhibited treatment and FeRB accelerated treatment, which were lower than 0.025 μg·kg-1. Compared with upland soils, more MeHg was formed in Paddy soils and the concentrations of MeHg in paddy soils were 4-9 times of that in upland soils. Variation in the number of SRB in soils was similar to that in the concentration of MeHg in soils, and the number of SRB was positively correlated with the concentration of MeHg concentrations in soils(R2=0.57,P<0.01). The above results indicated that activities of reducing bacteria, especially SRB, played key role in the methylation in soils. In addition, more attention should be paid to paddy soils due to the high potential of methylation when conducting any assessment and taking any measure to manage the health risk caused by the exposure to mercury.