Skip to main content

Advertisement

Log in

Estimation of mercury emissions from the forest floor of a pine plantation during a wildfire in central Portugal

  • Published:
Environmental Monitoring and Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Mercury (Hg) concentrations in soils and Hg releases from soils during wildfires are not well characterised in Portugal, even though wildfire activity continues to increase around the Mediterranean. This study focused on the low to moderate severity wildfire in Pombal (Portugal) in 2019, which consumed 12.5 ha of maritime pine (Pinus pinaster Ait.). We evaluated Hg concentrations in soil profiles and Hg pools in organic horizons to assess the fire-induced Hg emissions. Moreover, impacts of the fire on forest floor properties were estimated. Four soil profiles were sampled, two at the burned area and two at a nearby unburned area. The soil profiles displayed a typical Hg distribution, with higher Hg concentrations (156 µg kg−1) in the organic horizons with a sharp decrease in the mineral layers. The bond between organic matter and Hg was evident along the profiles, with a strong correlation between TOC and Hg. Ratios of Hg/TOC in the surface layers of the soil were similar in all profiles. The mean organic Hg pool at the studied site was calculated at 10.6 g ha−1. The fire did not seem to affect the topsoil properties based on visual indicators and the lack of statistical differences (p > 0.05) among measured fire-sensitive chemical soil properties (pH, CEC, TOC, TS) between the topsoils of the burned and unburned areas. If we consider a hypothetical complete combustion of the organic layer (743 Mg) and unaffected topsoil, we estimated a release of 133 g of Hg from the burned area. The study emphasised the importance of the forest floor for Hg retention and its crucial role in Hg emissions during wildfires in a country increasingly affected by climate change.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

Similar content being viewed by others

Data availability

The datasets generated/analysed for this paper are included in the article.

References

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the funding agencies Czech Science Foundation (GAČR 19-08614S) and Grant Agency of Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic (GAUK 1066120) for their support. This study was partially supported by institutional funding from the Centre for Geosphere Dynamics (UNCE/SCI/006). Isabel Campos acknowledges Science and Technology Foundation (FCT) for the financial support to CESAM (UIDP/50017/2020+UIDB/50017/2020). The authors would also like to thank Vít Penížek for his help in the interpretation of soil types, as well as Lenka Jílková and Marie Fayadová for their assistance during sample analysis. We are also grateful to the two anonymous reviewers and editor of the journal for their comments that helped us improve the quality of the paper.

Funding

This study was funded by the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR 19–08614S), a student grant from the Grant Agency of Charles University (GAUK 1066120), and by the Centre for Geosphere Dynamics (UNCE/SCI/006).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Alda Maria Domingues Vieira.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no competing interests.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Supplementary Information

Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.

Supplementary file1 (DOCX 1024 KB)

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Vieira, A.M.D., Vaňková, M., Campos, I. et al. Estimation of mercury emissions from the forest floor of a pine plantation during a wildfire in central Portugal. Environ Monit Assess 194, 755 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10436-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10436-7

Keywords

Navigation