International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.26, 260-271
260
Research Article Open Access
Mercury Fractionation in the Sediments of Kongsfjorden, an Arctic Fjord,
Svalbard
Mahesh Mohan
1
, Chandini P.K.
1
, K.P. Krishnan
2
, Gopikrishna V.G.
1
, Sajin Kumar K.S.
3
, Kannan V.M.
1
1 School of Environmental Sciences, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam-686560, Kerala, India
2 National Centre for Antarctic and Ocean Research, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Headlad Sada, Goa, India
3 Department of Geology, University of Kerala, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India
Corresponding email:
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No. 26 doi
Received: 15 May, 2017
Accepted: 06 Jun., 2017
Published: 23 Jun., 2017
Copyright © 2017
Mohan et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
Mohan M., Chandini P.K., Krishnan K.P., Gopikrishna V.G., Sajin K.K.S., and Kannan V.M., 2017, Mercury fractionation in the sediments of Kongsfjorden,
an Arctic Fjord, Svalbard, International Journal of Marine Science, 7(26): 260-271 (doi
Abstract
The presence of mercury (Hg) is increasing in Arctic region and the Arctic sea will take short time to reflect changes in
atmospheric Hg levels. Hence, monitoring of mercury content in the environmental matrices of Arctic is highly significant. The
present study assessed the total mercury (THg) as well as various Hg fractions in the sediments of Kongsfjorden, an Arctic Fjord in
Svalbard. The Hg toxicity mainly depends on the form which occurs. Fractionation study will help to understand the different forms
of Hg in sediment samples. The mean concentration of THg in sediment was 485 ng/gm dry weight. The results of fractionation
indicated the mobility of Hg in the Kongsfjord sediments. The highest percentage of Hg was in fourth fraction (F4) followed by the
fractions F2, F1, and F3 and final fraction (F5). The high Hg concentration in the initial fractions indicated the availability of Hg for
chemical and biological transformations and transport in the Fjord. Hence potential toxic effects are possible in the system.
Keywords
Pollution; Metal; Bioaccumulation; Sediment; Bioavailability
Introduction
Mercury is considered as a global contaminant due to its persistence, transboundary nature and high
bioaccumulation potential (Canário et al., 2007). Mercury in the environment has redistributed in air, water, snow,
soil and sediment after the industrial revolution. Hence mercury contamination has been increasing in various
ecosystems including polar ecosystems (Dietz et al., 2009; Rigét et al., 2011; Søndergaard, 2012). Arctic is
considered as one of the pristine environment in the world; however climate change adversely affects its physical
characteristics. In recent years, arctic become more vulnerable to the climatic changes which can influences the
fate and transport of global environmental pollutants especially mercury (Rigét et al., 2011; Søndergaard, 2012).
Earlier studies indicated that mercury concentration is rising in the Arctic environment along with other heavy
metals (Lamborg et al., 2002; Sprovieri et al., 2005; Xieet et al., 2008; Liu et al., 2015). The presence of mercury
was also noticed even in the fresh water lake sediments of Arctic (Jiang et al., 2011). The concentration of
mercury is very high in the fish (Pacyna and Keeler, 1995; Pirrone et al., 1996) and thus in arctic fox and polar
bears (AMAP, 1997; 1998).
The rise in temperature causes increased deposition of mercury in Arctic due to high rate of bromine emitted from
refreezing (Ariya et al., 2004). Besides this, several factors like sunlight, presence of other halogens and ozone
influence mercury deposition. Maximum deposition of mercury has been observed during spring time atmospheric
mercury depletion events (AMDE) (Lindberg et al., 2002; Steffen et al., 2008).
According to AMAP (2005), no point source of mercury was present in Arctic and the deposited mercury might
have transported from natural and anthropogenic sources outside the Arctic region. It is estimated that the global
mercury emission was 1920 tonnes in the year 2005 (AMAP, 2011). Approximately 100 tonnes of mercury were
deposited through atmosphere per year in the Arctic Ocean. Glacier melting, snow melting, water regeneration and
primary production affects the distribution of mercury in the Arctic marine environment (Kirk and St.Louis, 2009;
Dommergue et al., 2010; Stern et al., 2012).
