Fe, Rather Than Soil Organic Matter, as a Controlling Factor of Hg Distribution in Subsurface Forest Soil in an Iron Mining Area

Rui Qu, Guilin Han, Man Liu, Kunhua Yang, Xiaoqiang Li and Jinke Liu
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Rui Qu: Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Guilin Han: Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Man Liu: Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Kunhua Yang: Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Xiaoqiang Li: Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China
Jinke Liu: Institute of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences (Beijing), Beijing 100083, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: To identify whether the iron (Fe) mining area in the Jiulongjiang River basin (JRB) has an influence on the mercury in the forest soil, the spatial distribution patterns of mercury’s behavior on different controlling factors were analyzed, and a potential ecological risk assessment was done. A total of 107 soil samples were collected from two forest soil profiles, one profile near the Fe mining area and the other far from it. The soil near the mining area had a moderate potential ecological risk with high Fe content rich in the upper layer of soil (<70 cm), whereas soil collected far from the mining area had a low potential ecological risk. These results indicated that the rise of iron content in the soil near the mining area was beneficial to the enrichment of mercury, probably causing damage to the forest ecosystem. Both soil organic carbon (SOC) and Fe content have strong positive correlations with THg content, controlling the mercury behavior in the upper layer (<70 cm) and a lower layer (>70 cm) of soil, respectively. The high Fe content in the upper layer of soil will compete for the adsorption of mercury by SOC, leading to the poor correlation between SOC and THg.

Keywords: mercury; potential ecological risk assessment; iron mining area; spatial distribution; Jiulongjiang River basin; southeast China (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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