TRANSFORMATION OF MERCURY SPECIES IN POLLUTEDRIVER SEDIMENT
城市河流底泥中汞形态转化规律的研究

The speciation of mercury in sediment from a tributary of Huangpu River, Shanghai was investigated. It , was found that the fractions of water soluble and hydrochloric acid soluble organic mercury amounted to 8-18%, which were higher tham those found in other rivers. The transformation of mercury species in the sediment was studied and the results indicated that the reductions of the water soluble, the hydrochloric acid soluble inorganic and alkali soluble mercury obeyed either first-order or second-order kinetics, while other species increased with time exponentially. The rates of the transformation increased with the increase of temperature and the release of water soluble mercury to overlay water column was negligible. According to a correlation analysis, the aqua regia soluble mercury is the final sink for all mercury species in the sediment.