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Effects of drying pretreatments on the analysis of the mercury fraction in sediments

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Abstract

The geochemical fractions of heavy metals in sediments are crucial indexes for their mobility and bioavailability evaluations. However, different drying processes of sediment pretreatment could change metal geochemical fractions, especially for Hg, which is potentially volatile. In this study, the influence of pretreatment methods including oven-drying, air-drying, freeze-drying, and fresh sediments on the analysis of Hg fractions in sediments was investigated. Results showed that remarkable differences of Hg concentration were observed between fresh sediments and dried pretreatment sediments (P < 0.05). Briefly, the concentrations of the water-soluble and human stomach acid–soluble fractions in oven-dried and air-dried sediments generally showed significant increasing trends compared with those in the fresh sediments, while the organo-chelated fraction exhibited significant decreasing trends. The cause of this phenomenon was primarily the oxidation of organic matter, aging process, and the diffusion of Hg into micropores. The significant loss was also observed at elemental Hg fraction due to its volatilization effect. The freeze-drying posed minor influence on changes of Hg fraction analysis compared with oven-drying and air-drying. Moreover, the total Hg concentrations in pretreated sediments showed a decline of varying degrees compared with those in fresh sediments ascribing to the volatilization of elemental Hg. Finally, Pearson correlation analysis further confirmed that freeze-drying could minimize the errors of the Hg fraction analysis in sediments.

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Funding

This study was supported by the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS) (Grant No. XDA23050203) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41373100). Additional support was provided by the Regional Key Project of STS of CAS (Grant No. KFJ-STS-QYZX-057) and the Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province (Grant No. 2019GSF109002).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center for Coastal Environment Engineering Technology of Shandong Province, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, China

    Qunqun Liu, Jiangmin Song, Tao Ma, Ming Jiang & Yanqing Sheng

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China

    Qunqun Liu, Jiangmin Song & Ming Jiang

  3. Shandong Academy of Environmental Science Co., Ltd., Jinan, 250100, People’s Republic of China

    Tao Ma & Guangxiang Ma

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  1. Qunqun Liu
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  2. Jiangmin Song
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  5. Guangxiang Ma
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  6. Yanqing Sheng
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Correspondence to Yanqing Sheng.

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Liu, Q., Song, J., Ma, T. et al. Effects of drying pretreatments on the analysis of the mercury fraction in sediments. Environ Monit Assess 191, 607 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-019-7799-z

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