Equisetum plants and the cycling of mercury at Mount St. Helens

Abstract

Samples of Equisetum arvense collected in July 1982 at nine stations around Mount St. Helens have increased by 63-158 ppb in mercury content since the last sampling at the same locations in June 1981. Associated soils show little change by comparison. Unlike the highly directional pattern of June 1981, suggestive of the plume vector of the major 1980 eruption, the July 1982 distribution is more diffuse. It seems consistent with a continuous and extended mercury output distributed around the compass by seasonal and local wind variation. Mercury in follow-up samples at four stations in Sept 1982 had decreased 20-91 ppb without significant soil change. The authors propose that these variations are based on a predominat atmospheric source of plant mercury, the episodic character of volcanic mercury emission into the atmosphere, and relatively steady rates of volatilization of mercury from the plants. Calculated loss rates in the field samples agree well with measured rates of mercury release by Equisetum in the laboratory.