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Behavior of mercury from the fumarolic activity of Mt. Myoko, Japan: production of methylmercury and ethylmercury in forest soil

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Abstract

The behavior of mercury (Hg) in water, sediments, air, dwarf bamboo leaves, and soils around the fumarolic area of Mt. Myoko, Japan, was investigated. Although some of the hot spring water samples contained over 1 µg/L total-Hg, overall, the total-Hg concentrations in the water samples decreased rapidly as the water flowed into a river. The total-Hg concentrations decreased not only due to simple dilution, but also to co-precipitation of Hg2+ with Fe(OH)3. The highest atmospheric Hg concentration, 91.7 ng/m3, was detected near the fumarole, and the concentrations decreased with distance from the fumarolic area. This tendency was also confirmed in the total-Hg concentrations of plant leaf samples. Total-Hg, methylmercury (MeHg), and ethylmercury (EtHg) concentrations in the soil surface layer (n = 13) ranged from 0.19 to 21.7 mg/kg, 0.3 to 9.3 µg/kg, and undetected to 7.7 µg/kg, respectively. The total-Hg concentrations in the surface layer soil samples decreased with distance from the fumarolic area, while the vertical distribution of total-Hg concentrations in the core and outcrop samples showed no clear trends. However, the MeHg and EtHg concentrations had no relationship with the total-Hg concentrations and were higher in the upper layer soils. The results suggest that MeHg and EtHg not only migrate with other Hg species from the volcanic gases, but are also generated on site. It was also confirmed that EtHg occurs in soil at the same level as MeHg in the study area.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Environment Research and Technology Development Fund (5RF-1303) of the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, and partially supported by the Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research (15H02832 and 18H03392) from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Division of Earth and Environmental Science, Graduate School of Science and Engineering, Kagoshima University, 1-21-35 Korimoto, Kagoshima, 890-0065, Japan

    Hitoshi Kodamatani, Souta Katsuma, Azusa Shigetomi, Toshimune Hokazono, Ryusuke Imura, Ryo Kanzaki & Takashi Tomiyasu

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  1. Hitoshi Kodamatani
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  2. Souta Katsuma
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  3. Azusa Shigetomi
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  4. Toshimune Hokazono
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  5. Ryusuke Imura
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  6. Ryo Kanzaki
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  7. Takashi Tomiyasu
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Correspondence to Hitoshi Kodamatani.

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Kodamatani, H., Katsuma, S., Shigetomi, A. et al. Behavior of mercury from the fumarolic activity of Mt. Myoko, Japan: production of methylmercury and ethylmercury in forest soil. Environ Earth Sci 77, 478 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7616-y

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