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Effect of Fire on Pools of Mercury in Forest Soil, Central Europe

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Abstract

In year 2006, 17.9 ha of forest was burned during a forest fire at the Bohemian Switzerland National Park found in northern part of Czech Republic (CR), central Europe. Complete combustion of organic soil (4,039 t) on the burned area caused volatilization of 1.34 ± 0.07 kg of Hg. Thus Hg emissions due to fire amounted to 75.1 g ha−1. The average burned forested areas in CR for the period 2000–2006 were reported at 356 ha with estimated Hg emissions at 26.7 kg year−1, while the average anthropogenic emissions in the same period amounted to 3 t year−1. Thus estimated mean emissions of Hg from burned forest soil in the period 2000–2006 reached 1% of the annual anthropogenic Hg emissions.

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Acknowledgments

This project was funded by Czech Science Foundation (GAČR 526/07/P170) and institutional project AV0Z30130516. We thank Aria Amirbahman for helpful comments and help with final version of the paper. We appreciate help of Michal Filippi with the field sampling.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Geology, Academy of Science, Rozvojová 269, 165 02, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Tomáš Navrátil, Maria Hojdová & Jan Rohovec

  2. Czech University of Life Sciences, Kamýcká 129, 165 21, Prague 6, Czech Republic

    Vít Penížek

  3. Bohemian Switzerland National Park Administration, Pražská 52, 407 46, Krásná Lípa, Czech Republic

    Zuzana Vařilová

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  1. Tomáš Navrátil
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  2. Maria Hojdová
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  4. Vít Penížek
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  5. Zuzana Vařilová
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Correspondence to Tomáš Navrátil.

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Navrátil, T., Hojdová, M., Rohovec, J. et al. Effect of Fire on Pools of Mercury in Forest Soil, Central Europe. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 83, 269–274 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-009-9705-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-009-9705-9

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