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Wetlands at the riverside of the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve “Central Elbe” are highly contaminated by heavy metals, especially mercury (Hg). The Hg-polluted Elbe floodplain soils turn out to be a source of gaseous mercury via Hg volatilization from soil into the atmosphere. A modified field sampling method was used to measure total gaseous mercury (TGM) volatilization from three different sites at the Elbe River. The modified setup had a reduced chamber size and contained an internal gas circulation system. An in-ground stainless steel cylinder minimizes Hg volatilization from adjacent soil air. Cold vapor atomic absorption spectrometry (CV-AAS) was used to determine TGM amalgamated on gold traps. Sampled TGM amounts ranged between 0.02 and 0.63 ng (absolute), whereas the calculated Hg fluxes varied from 2.0 to 63.3 ng m-2 h-1. The modified system should allow measurements of Hg volatilization at various sites with a high spatial resolution, which should enable the study of interrelations between TGM emission and several key factors influencing Hg emission from floodplain soils at the Elbe River and other riverine ecosystems in the near future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although soil contamination by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in Europe has a history of many centuries, related problems are often considered as having been dealt with due to the enforcement of tight legislations. However, there are many unsolved issues. We aimed to assess PTE levels in highly contaminated soils and in garden edible vegetables using human health risk indices in order to evaluate the availability and mobilization of arsenic (As), copper (Cu), manganese (Mn), mercury (Hg), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn). In four gardens in Germany, situated on, or in the vicinity of, a mine dump area, we planted beans ( Phaseolus vulgaris ssp. nanus ), carrots ( Daucus sativus ) and lettuce ( Lactuca sativa ssp. capitata ). We examined soil-to-plant mobilization of elements using transfer coefficient ( TC ), as well as soil contamination using contamination factor ( CF ), enrichment factor ( EF ), and bioaccumulation index ( I geo ). In addition, we tested two human health risk assessment indices: Soil-induced hazard quotient (HQ S ) (representing the “direct soil ingestion” pathway), and vegetable-induced hazard quotient (HQ V ) (representing the “vegetable intake” pathway). The studied elements were highly elevated in the soils. The values in garden 2 were especially high (e.g., Pb: 13789.0 and Hg: 36.8 mg kg −1 ) and largely exceeded the reported regulation limits of 50 (for As), 40 (Cu), 400 (Pb), 150 (Zn), and 5 (Hg) mg kg −1 . Similarly, element concentrations were very high in the grown vegetables. The indices of CF , EF and I geo were enhanced even to levels that are rarely reported in the literature. Specifically, garden 2 indicated severe contamination due to multi-element deposition. The contribution of each PTE to the total of measured HQ S revealed that Pb was the single most important element causing health risk (contributing up to 77% to total HQ S ). Lead also posed the highest risk concerning vegetable consumption, contributing up to 77% to total HQ V . The presence of lead in both cases was followed by that of As, Mn and Hg. We conclude that in multi-element contamination cases, along with high-toxicity elements (here, Pb, As and Hg) other elements may also be responsible for increasing human health risks (i.e., Mn), due to the possibility of adverse synergism of the PTEs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Environmental pollution by mercury (Hg) is a considerable environmental problem world-wide. Due to the occurrence of Hg volatilization from their soils, floodplains can function as an important source of volatile Hg. Soil temperature and soil water content related to flood dynamics are considered as important factors affecting seasonal dynamics of total gaseous mercury (TGM) fluxes. We quantified seasonal variations of TGM fluxes and conducted a laboratory microcosm experiment to assess the effect of temperature and moisture on TGM fluxes in heavily polluted floodplain soils. Observed TGM emissions ranged from 10 to 850 ng m(-2) h(-1) and extremely exceeded the emissions of non-polluted sites. TGM emissions increased exponentially with raised air and soil temperatures in both field (R(2): 0.49-0.70) and laboratory (R(2): 0.99) experiments. Wet soil material showed higher TGM fluxes, whereas the role of soil water content was affected by sampling time during the microcosm experiments.