Journal
SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT
Volume 825, Issue -, Pages -Publisher
ELSEVIER
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154069
Keywords
Mercury species; Biological risk; Mixture toxicity; Sediment; Bioavailability
Categories
Funding
- National Key R&D Program of China [2019YFD0901105]
- Key Special Project for Introduced Talents Team of Southern Marine Science and Engineering Guangdong Laboratory (Guangzhou) [GML2019ZD0402]
- Central Public-interest Scientific Institution Basal Research Fund, CAFS [2020TD15]
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This study assesses the integrated toxicity of mercury species mixtures in sediment using the DGT technique in Daya Bay. The results indicate that both inorganic mercury and methyl mercury in the sediments exceed the risk threshold and have adverse effects on aquatic biota. However, the probabilistic biological risk assessment shows that the toxicity probability in Daya Bay's sediments is low.
Mercury (Hg) is a global, persistent and inevitable pollutant, the toxicity of which is mostly reflected in its species including inorganic Hg (InHg) and methyl mercury (MeHg). Using diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) is deemed as a reliable technique to determine the bioavailability of pollutants. This study is the first attempt to assess the integrated toxicity of mercury species mixtures in sediments to the aquatic biota based on the DGT technique. In the course, the Daya Bay under serious anthropogenic influences was selected as the study case. The results showed that the DGT concentrations of InHg and MeHg were detected as 0.30-1.93 mu g/L and 0.28-1.94 mu g/L respectively in the surface sediments collected from the Daya Bay. In terms of the toxicity of single mercury species, the risk quotient (RQ) values of InHg and MeHg significantly exceeded 1, indicating that the adverse effects of InHg and MeHg should not be ignored. In terms of the integrated toxicity of mercury species mixtures, the probabilistic biological risk assessment results demonstrate that Daya Bay features low (3.32%) probability of toxic effects in its surface sediments to the aquatic biota.
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