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Abiological Methylation of Mercury in Soil
Author(s) -
Rogers Robert D.
Publication year - 1977
Publication title -
journal of environmental quality
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.888
H-Index - 171
eISSN - 1537-2537
pISSN - 0047-2425
DOI - 10.2134/jeq1977.00472425000600040029x
Subject(s) - chemistry , mercury (programming language) , distilled water , environmental chemistry , sodium hydroxide , soil water , methylation , hydroxide , sodium , inorganic chemistry , organic chemistry , chromatography , biochemistry , ecology , computer science , gene , biology , programming language
The results from this work define several factors influencing the methylation of mercuric ion in soil. Two of the most important findings were that it is possible to extract the mercury methylating factor from soil with a solution of 0.5/V sodium hydroxide (NaOH) and that this factor is responsible for the abiological methylation of Hg in the soils under investigation. The ability of the soil extract to methylate Hg is influenced by temperature, mercuric ion concentrations, and solution pH. In addition, it was found that the methylating ability of the soil extract was stable at high temperatures (121C), but was lost after exposure to ultraviolet radiation. When the 0.5/V NaOH extract of soil was separated into a soluble fraction and an insoluble precipitate, the ability to methylate mercuric ion remained with the soluble fraction. It was found that the methylating factor was lost when the 0.5/V NaOH extract was dialyzed against distilled water. Other work showed that the methylating factor passes through dialysis tubing into the distilled water.