Title:

Mercury Accumulation in the Great Bay Ecosystem- Links with Carbon and Sediment Size

We evaluated mercury (Hg) concentrations in estuarine sediments to assess how Hg is stored in this environment. At two locations (A and C) in the Great Bay Estuary of New Hampshire, sediment cores of varying lengths (Core A: 0 to 60 cm and Core C: 0 to 95 cm) were taken. We found that Core A had a relatively low and consistent concentration of Hg (ranging from 8.4 to 43.4 ppb), whereas, Core C had an elevated level of Hg (> 2000 ppb) at a depth of 15 cm. We examined how Hg concentrations may be affected by the carbon content (as assessed by loss-on-ignition (LOI)) and the grain size of the sediments. In Core A mercury concentrations were significantly correlated with sediment carbon content (r2 = 0.81, p = 0.003). However, in Core C, Hg and carbon content were not correlated (r2 = 0.19, p = 0.415) even though there was a high level of Hg in this core. These data indicate that there are other factors controlling Hg concentrations in this sample.

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