Mercury isotope signatures of digests and sequential extracts from industrially contaminated soils and sediments

• Published in: The Science of the total environment 2018-09, Vol.636, p.1344-1354
• Main Authors: Grigg, Andrew R.C., Kretzschmar, Ruben, Gilli, Robin S., Wiederhold, Jan G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aqua regia; Environmental Monitoring; Geologic Sediments - chemistry; Industrial contamination; Industry; MC-ICP-MS; Mercury - analysis; Mercury Isotopes - analysis; Mining; Sodium hydroxide; Sodium pyrophosphate; Soil Pollutants - analysis; Source tracing; Switzerland
• ISSN: 0048-9697; 1879-1026
• DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.04.261

Environmental mercury (Hg) pollution is a matter of global concern. Mercury speciation controls its environmental behaviour, and stable isotope ratios can potentially trace Hg movement through environmental compartments. Here we investigated Hg in industrially contaminated soils and sediments (Visp, Valais, Switzerland) using concentration and stable isotope analysis (CV-MC-ICP-MS) of total digests, and a four-step sequential extraction procedure. The sequential extraction employed (1) water (labile Hg species), (2) NaOH or Na4P2O7 (organically-bound Hg), (3) hydroxylamine-HCl (Hg bound to Mn and Fe (oxyhydr)oxides), and (4) aqua regia (residual Hg pools). The majority of Hg was extracted in step 4 and up to 36% in step 2. Mercury bound to organic matter was the dominant source of Hg in water, NaOH and Na4P2O7 extracts. Sulfides and colloidal oxide minerals were possible additional sources of Hg in some samples. The inconsistent comparative performance of NaOH and Na4P2O7 extractions showed that these classical extractants may not extract Hg exclusively from the organically-bound pool. Samples taken at the industrial facility displayed the greatest isotopic variation (δ202Hg: −0.80‰ ± 0.14‰ to 0.25‰ ± 0.13‰, Δ199Hg: −0.10‰ ± 0.03‰ to 0.02‰ ± 0.03‰; all 2SD) whereas downstream of the facility there was much less variation around average values of δ202Hg = −0.47‰ ± 0.11‰ and Δ199Hg = −0.05‰ ± 0.03‰ (1SD, n = 19). We interpret the difference as the result of homogenisation by mixing of canal sediments containing Hg from the various sources at the industrial facility with preservation of the mixed industrial Hg signature downstream. In contrast to previous findings, Hg isotopes in the sequential extracts were largely similar to one another (2SD