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Building upon the Conceptual Model for Soil Mercury Flux: Evidence of a Link Between Moisture Evaporation and Hg Evasion

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Abstract

Parameters known to influence mercury (Hg) release from soils include substrate and air Hg concentration, light, atmospheric oxidants, temperature, and soil moisture. However, for low Hg-containing soils, the influence of these parameters has been shown to vary across space and time. Here, we expand upon previous work by investigating whether soil–water evaporative loss, which integrates the influence of multiple parameters, could be applied for predicting Hg flux from soil with low Hg concentrations when bare and planted. To investigate our hypothesis, Hg flux was measured from three soil types (<100 ng Hg g−1). When these soils were saturated, flux was suppressed. Soil moisture evaporative stage was used to partition the parameters most important for controlling Hg flux as the soils dried. Classification and regression tree (CART) analyses showed that soil moisture was the most important parameter predicting Hg flux. Results also showed an important predictor for Hg flux was whether actual evaporation (E a) was equal to potential evaporation (E p) or E a < E p. Depending on evaporative stage, the parameters with the next highest correlation to Hg flux were light, temperature, and soil moisture evaporation rate. The presence of vegetation also influenced flux with lower Hg flux when the plants were transpiring. Results indicate for those developing models that estimate Hg flux from low Hg-containing soils, soil moisture and evaporative stage are useful tools for predicting flux.

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Acknowledgment

This study was funded by the Electric Power Research Institute with project manager Ken Ladwig. The University of Nevada Reno provided the facilities used in data collection. Thanks to graduate and undergraduate students in the Gustin Research Group who helped with this work specifically Matthieu Miller, Rebekka Fine, Melissa Markee, Claudia Pizarro, Musheng Alishahi, and Vanessa Wehrkamp, and Research Associate Christianna Peterson. Many thanks to Drs. Dale Johnson and Simon Poulson who were members of the first author’s Master’s Thesis Committee.

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  1. Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Science, MS 186, University of Nevada, Reno, Reno, NV, 89557, USA

    Christian Briggs & Mae Sexauer Gustin

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  1. Christian Briggs
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  2. Mae Sexauer Gustin
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Correspondence to Mae Sexauer Gustin.

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Briggs, C., Gustin, M.S. Building upon the Conceptual Model for Soil Mercury Flux: Evidence of a Link Between Moisture Evaporation and Hg Evasion. Water Air Soil Pollut 224, 1744 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-013-1744-5

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