Distribution and Speciation of Mercury in the Environment

Mercury is recently a global polutant affecting the global environment; almost all soluble mercury compounds are poisonous. Mercury entrance into the environment, fluxes and distribution in the environment represents an important research topic of the Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry GLI AS CR. More precisely, issues of mercury distribution in soils, forested ecosystems of experimental catchments or in a severely contaminated industrial areas (Příbramsko, Jedova hora) are studied. The research effort is also focused on the mobility of mercury in the environment as well as the chemical speciation of mercury. The analytical methods used enable to determine the mercury content in the order of nanograms (using AMA 254, instrument for CV-AAS). Additionally, new techniques for speciation studies are being developed such as thermal analysis-ICP-EOS.