title: Mercury in terrestrial forested systems with highly elevated mercury deposition in southwestern China: The risk to insects and potential release from wildfires.
abstract: Forests are considered a pool of mercury in the global mercury cycle. However, few studies have investigated the distribution of mercury in the forested systems in China. Tieshanping forest catchment in southwest China was impacted by mercury emissions from industrial activities and coal combustions. Our work studied mercury content in atmosphere, soil, vegetation and insect with a view to estimating the potential for mercury release during forest fires. Results of the present study showed that total gaseous mercury (TGM) was highly elevated and the annual mean concentration was 3.51 ± 1.39 ng m(-2). Of the vegetation tissues, the mercury concentration follows the order of leaf/needle > root > bark > branch > bole wood for each species. Total ecosystem mercury pool was 103.5 mg m(-2) and about 99.4% of the mercury resides in soil layers (0-40 cm). The remaining 0.6% (0.50 mg m(-2)) of mercury was stored in biomass. The large mercury stocks in the forest ecosystem pose a serious threat for large pluses to the atmospheric mercury during potential wildfires and additional ecological stress to forest insect: dung beetles, cicada and longicorn, with mercury concentration of 1983 ± 446, 49 ± 38 and 7 ± 5 ng g(-1), respectively. Hence, the results obtained in the present study has implications for global estimates of mercury storage in forests, risks to forest insect and potential release to the atmosphere during wildfires.
authors: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors: Jun
authors: J
authors: Zhou
authors: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China. Electronic address: wangzhw@rcees.ac.cn.
authors: Zhangwei
authors: Z
authors: Wang
authors: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors: Ting
authors: T
authors: Sun
authors: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
authors: Huan
authors: H
authors: Zhang
authors: Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China.
authors: Xiaoshan
authors: X
authors: Zhang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001272:Atmosphere; D018533:Biomass; D002681:China; D005390:Fires; D065928:Forests; D007313:Insecta / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000502:physiology; D008628:Mercury / Q000737:chemistry*; D012307:Risk Factors; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012987:Soil; D008628:Mercury
keywords: Mercury pool; Subtropical forest; Total gaseous mercury; Vegetation tissues