Research On The Releasing Of Mercury From Estuary Sediment In Jiaozhou Bay

Mercury is a global pollutant with high toxicity. Inorganic mercury can be easily changed into methymercury, and accumulated in life bodies. The toxicity is enlargem-ented, so it has a serious influence on ecosystem. Since the 1950's Minamata Disease in Japan, the mercury pollution is always a concerning question in the environment science field. Mercury pollution appears widely and can't be easily disposed, mainly because mercury and its compounds can easily transport and transform in the environments. Many scholars have researched mercury transport from the soil to the atmosphere, the water to the atmosphere, and the vegetation to the atmosphere. UsingHaipo Estuary and Licun Estuary sediments in Jiaozhou Bay, we discuss the releasing of mercury from the estuary sediment to the upper water and the atmosphere. Haipo and Licun Estuary were polluted heavily in the east of Jiaozhou Bay. The mercury concentrations were 5.62μg /g and 2.92μg /g respectively. Some factors such as pH, temperature, depth of the sediment and solar radiation affected the release of mercury from sediment to upper water. When pH <7, the release rate, content and percentage of mercury decreased following the increase of pH, and when pH >7, they increased following the increase of pH. The release of mercury increased following the increase of temperature of seawater. The release of mercury was related to the depth of sediment. The effective depth of Haipo and Licun Estuary Sediment were 3.5cm and 2.5cm respectively. Within the effective depth, the release content increased and the release rate decreased following the increase of sediment depth. The release content of mercury to the upper water increased under solar radiation. When the release of mercury reached a balance, the mercury of upper water could usually contain severalμg /L. This heavily affected the intertidal seawater of Jiaozhou Bay.Mercury release fitted to the First-order equation, the Double constant equation, the Elovish equation, the Parabola diffusion equation, the Ho's first-order equation and...