Soil-plant mercury concentrations in the Idrijca river terraces (Slovenia)

Authors

  • Mateja Gosar

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5474/geologija.2004.021

Abstract

The subjects of research are mercury contents in plants and soils on river terraces in the lower reaches of the Idrijca River. Samples of averaged meadow forage and plaintain (Plantago lanceolata) contain from 0.055 to 0.220 mg Hg/kg in dry matter. In comparison to samples from Idrija in the 1970’s these contents are relatively low with respect to mercury in soil. They are similar to those established in the surroundings of the abandoned Podljubelj mercury mine. However, with respect to contents in non-polluted soils the contents on Idrijca river terraces are considerably above the background. Total mercury in plants is influenced only to some degree by its contents in soils. Comparison of samples on terraces at the Temnikar farm shows that the contents in spil increase discontinuously from the third towards the first terrace. But in plants these differences are small, probably owing to the large part of mercury being contained in cinnabar that is inaccessible to plants. On the first river terrace (TEM3 locality) where soil contains about 55 times more Hg than on the third terrace, the average forage sample contains only 1.6 times and plantain sample 1.8 times higher Hg than the corresponding samples on the third terrace.

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How to Cite

Gosar, M. (2004). Soil-plant mercury concentrations in the Idrijca river terraces (Slovenia) . Geologija, 47(2), 259–271. https://doi.org/10.5474/geologija.2004.021

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