Anal Bioanal Chem (2008) 390:2115–2122
DOI 10.1007/s00216-008-1968-1
ORIGINAL PAPER
Validation of methodology for determination of the mercury
methylation potential in sediments using radiotracers
Suzana Žižek & Sergio Ribeiro Guevara & Milena Horvat
Received: 21 December 2007 / Revised: 7 February 2008 / Accepted: 9 February 2008 / Published online: 3 March 2008
# Springer-Verlag 2008
Abstract Experiments to determine the mercury methyla-
tion potential were performed on sediments from two
locations on the river Idrijca (Slovenia), differing in
ambient mercury concentrations. The tracer used was the
radioactive isotope 197Hg. The benefit of using this tracer is
its high specific activity, which enables spikes as low as
0.02 ng Hg2+ g−1 of sample to be used. It was therefore
possible to compare the efficiency of the methylation
potential experiments over a range of spike concentrations
from picogram to microgram levels. The first part of the
work aimed to validate the experimental blanks and the
second part consisted of several series of incubation
experiments on two different river sediments using a range
of tracer additions. The results showed high variability in
the obtained methylation potentials. Increasing Hg2+ addi-
tions gave a decrease in the percentage of the tracer
methylated during incubation; in absolute terms, the spikes
that spanned four orders of magnitude (0.019–190 pg g−1 of
sediment slurry) resulted in MeHg formation between 0.01
and 0.1 ng MeHg g−1 in Podroteja and Kozarska Grapa.
Higher spikes resulted in slightly elevated MeHg produc-
tion (up to a maximum of 0.27 ng g−1). The values of
methylation potential were similar in both sediments. The
results imply that the experimental determination of
S. Žižek (*) : M. Horvat
Department of Environmental Sciences, Jožef Stefan Institute,
Jamova 39,
1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
e-mail: suzana.zizek@ijs.si
S. Ribeiro Guevara
Laboratorio de Análisis por Activación Neutrónica,
Centro Atómico Bariloche,
8400 Bariloche, Argentina
mercury methylation potential strongly depends on the
experimental setup itself and the amount of tracer added to
the system under study. It is therefore recommended to use
different concentrations of tracer and perform the experi-
ments in several replicates. The amount of mercury available
for methylation in nature is usually very small. Therefore,
adding very low amounts of tracer in the methylation
potential studies probably gives results that have a higher
environmental relevance. It is also suggested to express the
results obtained in absolute amounts of MeHg produced and
not just as the percentage of the added tracer.
Keywords Mercury . Methylmercury . Mercury
methylation . 197Hg radiotracer . Sediment
Introduction
Mercury, although naturally present in the Earth’s crust, is a
global pollutant mostly arising from human activities.
Therefore, the management of and policy regarding mer-
cury pollution is a global challenge [1]. It is well known
that the formation and bioaccumulation of monomethyl-
mercury (MeHg) is the most critical aspect of environmen-
tal quality regarding Hg pollution due to its accumulation
and biomagnification properties in the food chain. There-
fore the reduction of MeHg formation can be defined as the
priority in remediation options [2]. This applies in
particular to sites that are heavily contaminated with
mercury or sites with ecosystem characteristics that favour
methylation of mercury even at much lower concentration
levels, and are therefore identified as sensitive areas [3].
The present study was implemented in an area contam-
inated due to past mercury mining activities, in Idrija,
Slovenia (Fig. 1). Mercury concentrations have long been
2116
monitored [4] in air [5, 6], soil [7–9] and the river Idrijca [4,
9–12]. The inorganic mercury that enters the river undergoes
various transformations [11]. The step in this biogeochemical
cycling that is of greatest concern is methylation. Because of
its toxicity and its potential to bioaccumulate and biomagnify,
methylmercury (MeHg) poses a threat not only to the local
community but also to locations downstream of Idrija and in
the Gulf of Trieste [13]. Therefore, it is important to be able to
correctly estimate the methylation potential of the Idrijca river
system. The aim of this work was to assess the efficiency of
laboratory Hg methylation experiments on riverine sediments.
Methylation potential experiments usually involve spiking
the sample with inorganic mercury as a tracer and extracting
MeHg after an incubation period. The tracers used are either
enriched stable isotopes [14–16] or radioactive isotopes,
usually 203Hg [11, 17, 18]. The amount of mercury spiked
also varies considerably. Ramlal et al. [19] added 203Hg as
HgCl at a concentration of 2 µg g−1 dry sediment. 203HgCl2
was also used by Hines et al. [11] at concentrations of 40–
100 ng mL−1 of sediment slurry. Guimarães et al. [17] spiked
50–100 mL of sediment with 2 µg of 203HgCl2. Hintelmann et
al. [14] used enriched 199Hg(NO3)2 in additions that increased
the total mercury (THg) concentrations in sediments by 10–
13%, which meant spikes of 19–30 ng g−1 dry weight. It
should be stated, however, that the natural concentrations of
inorganic mercury ions in sediments constitute only about 1%
of the total mercury concentration [8]. Rodríguez Martín-
Doimeadios et al. [15] increased ambient THg in estuarine
sediments by 0.498 nmol 199Hg g−1 dry weight (66.7 ng g−1)
Kozarska Grapa
Podroteja
Fig. 1 Location of the river Idrijca and the sampling sites
Anal Bioanal Chem (2008) 390:2115–2122
by spiking with 199HgCl. The results for the mercury
methylation potential can be expressed as the percentage of
methylmercury formed per day [16], nanograms of MeHg
formed per day per gram of sediment [14], percentage of
spiked inorganic mercury methylated per gram per hour [17,
19] or the percentage of tracer converted to MeHg per day
[11]. In the report by Rodríguez Martín-Doimeadios et al.
[15], rate constants for methylation were calculated based on
the ratio of the different stable isotopes added.
The tracer used in the present study was the radioactive
isotope 197Hg (t1/2 =64.14 h), obtained in an experimental
nuclear reactor by irradiating mercury 51.58% enriched in
the isotope 196Hg (the natural abundance of 196Hg is
0.15%). The benefit of using this tracer is its high specific
activity, which enables spikes as low as 0.02 ng Hg2+ g−1sample.
The present work was conducted as a continuation of the
experiments performed using 197Hg radiotracer [18] where
the feasibility of using this tracer was confirmed. Owing to
its high specific activity, it is possible to compare the
efficiency of methylation potential experiments over a
range of spike concentrations from picogram to microgram
levels. These experiments were performed on sediments
from two locations on the river Idrijca, differing in ambient
mercury concentrations. This was done to establish how
these differences affect the determination of the methylation
potential. Net mercury methylation in riverine sediments is
very low compared with marine and estuarine sediments,
mostly due to the lower content of sulfate-reducing bacteria.
The estimation of net methylation should not be depen-
dent on the methodology or the amount of added tracer. The
present study was conducted to verify that the methodology
of tracer experiments is a valid way of estimating mercury
methylation potential.
Another consideration was addressed in connection with
methylation potential experiments, namely the way of
determining the experimental blanks. A certain amount of
the inorganic mercury spike can be carried over into the
organic solvent during extraction, which leads to overestima-
tion of MeHg formation. Another source of error could stem
from adding the tracer before inhibiting bacterial activity, thus
enabling biotic mercury methylation to occur. A separate set
of experiments was therefore designed in which bacterial
activity was inhibited either before or after the spike addition.
Methods
Sampling and sample preparation
Sediment samples were collected at two sites on the river
Idrijca (see Fig. 1). Sampling took place over four
consecutive weeks so that each experiment was performed
on a fresh batch of sediments. All sample manipulations
Anal Bioanal Chem (2008) 390:2115–2122 2117

Table 1 Characteristics of the examined sediments and their mercury personal communication) and therefore the concentrations
concentrations
in sediment are not expected to be high.
Parameter Sampling site Sampling site
Podroteja Kozarska Grapa Experimental setup
Organic content (LOI) 18.3±4.1% 0.35±0.05%
A scheme of all the steps involved in the experimental work
Water content 43.1±2.0% 35.8±0.7%
THg 182± 1760± is shown in Fig. 2.
38.7 ng g−1 123 ng g−1 The inorganic mercury tracer was produced from
MeHg 0.18± 1.18± elemental mercury 51.58% enriched in the 196Hg isotope
0.07 ng g−1 0.06 ng g−1 (Isoflex, CA, USA). Hg0 was dissolved in 2% HNO3 and
Hg(II) in pore water 2.70± 6.02± its concentration in the solution was determined by CV
0.22 ng L−1 0.30 ng L−1 AAS [20] to be 0.057 mg mL−1. A 1-mL aliquot of this
Hg(II)/THg 6.4×10–4% 1.2×10–4%
solution was irradiated in a sealed quartz ampoule in the
THg and MeHg are given on a wet weight basis. All the results are central irradiation facility (Φth =1×1013 n cm−2 s−1) of the
averages of three replicate measurements. TRIGA Mark II (250 kW) research reactor of the Jožef
LOI loss on ignition Stefan Institute, Slovenia. Irradiation times were 10–15 h.
Fresh tracer was prepared every week for each set of
experiments for four consecutive weeks [18].
For the methylation potential experiments sediment
and tracer additions were performed in a glove box under a samples were mixed with river water from the same site
nitrogen atmosphere in order to maintain the redox and 3 g of the slurry was subsampled into Teflon vials.
potential of the samples, their anoxic nature and to disturb After spiking with 197Hg2+ , the samples were vortexed.
their bacterial populations as little as possible. Organic and Incubation samples were left in the dark at room temper-
water contents as well as total and methylmercury concen- ature for 24 h. MeHg was then extracted into 10 mL of
trations were measured (Table 1). To estimate the amount of toluene after adding 7 mL of 4 M KBr and 7 mL of 4 M
Hg(II) already present in the samples, reactive mercury H2SO4, saturated with CuSO4. For control samples the
(RHg) was measured in pore water. THg and MeHg in pore extractions took place immediately after spiking. The
water had been measured in a previous research and were activity of 197Hg in the toluene extracts was measured on
shown to be 200–1,800 ng L−1 and 6–200 ng L−1, respec- a well-type HPGe (high purity germanium) detector. All
tively. THg in pore waters was measured using UV experiments were performed in triplicate. A detailed
digestion and cold vapour atomic absorption spectrometry procedure is described elsewhere [18].
(CV AAS) detection [20] and MeHg was measured after In order to approximate the amount of inorganic mercury
distillation, derivatisation, gas chromatographic separation that is reduced during incubation, an experiment was
and detection by CV atomic fluorescence spectrometry performed to measure Hg2+ reduction to Hg0 simultaneously
(AFS) [21]. Sulfate concentrations in the water of river with the methylation experiments. This was done in one set
Idrijca are 6.19–36.4 mg L−1 (Dr. Tjaša Kanduč, 2007, of experiments. The Hg0 vapour released during incubation

Fig. 2 Flow chart of the exper-

imental setup sediment collection from Podroteja and
Kozarska Grapa in four consecutive weeks

sediment subsampling in glove-box

under N2 atmosphere

radiotracer addition subsampling of standards radiotracer measurement

validation of experimental blanks

control runs – extraction radiotracer measurement

extraction
immediately after tracer addition in toluene

incubation of samples for 24 radiotracer measurement

extraction
hours at room temperature in toluene
2118 Anal Bioanal Chem (2008) 390:2115–2122

0,16
was flushed out by a flow of N2 from the incubation vessel repl. 1
and trapped on selenium-coated paper [22], which was then 0,14
repl. 2
measured on a coaxial HPGe γ-ray and x-ray detector by 0,12 repl. 3
placing the glass tube on the detector cap [18]. average
0,10

WS)
g-1 WS)
The methylation experiments were performed on sedi-
0,08

-1
ments from the two sites on the river Idrijca, one high and

(% (%.g
0,06
the other low in ambient mercury concentrations. The

extraction
experiments were carried out with spikes containing 0.019, 0,04

MeHg extracts
0.19, 0.94, 1.9, 4.7, 19, 47, 190 and 1,900 ng Hg g−1 0,02
2+ -1
sediment slurry. Hg addition: 0.19 ng.g
0,00

Hg inMethyl-Hg
0,010

Results and discussion

after
0,008

197
relativeHg
The aim of this work was to verify the validity of radio-
0,006

197
tracer experiments for the assessment of mercury methyl-

relative
ation potential in riverine sediments. In order to do this, the
0,004
first part of the work was to validate the experimental
blanks and the second part consisted of several series of 0,002
incubation experiments on two different sediments using a 2+ -1
range of tracer additions. Hg addition: 19 ng.g
0,000
real kill
reagents fastreagents
incubation 10 min. incubation
BEFORE AFTER
Validation of experimental blanks tracer tracer

Fig. 3 Comparison of tracer recoveries in MeHg extracts when

The method used for inhibiting bacterial activity after
adding the inorganic mercury tracer was to add the
extraction reagents which contain sulfuric acid and potas-
sium bromide. This method proved to be efficient in
stopping bacterial activity compared with other methods
used in similar works, namely flash freezing, heating or
gamma-ray irradiation [23]. In order to ascertain that no
biotic mercury methylation takes place in the time between
adding the tracer and starting the extraction (ca. 20 s), a
separate experiment was designed. A set of sediments was
taken from the Podroteja sampling site. Subaliquots of 3 g
were spiked with Hg2+ either immediately or after adding
the extraction reagents (KBr, H2SO4 and CuSO4). Two
levels of Hg2+ spike were used: 19 ng g−1 wet sediment and
1.9 ng g−1 wet sediment. To compare the results of the two
controls with biotic methylation, a separate set of samples
was incubated for 10 min after spiking. Each experiment
was done in three independent replicates. The results are
presented in Fig. 3 for each replicate separately and as an
average, and the standard deviation indicated by the error
bar. Figure 4 shows the absolute values of MeHg pro-
duction. There were no significant differences between the
two procedures, whereas after 10 min of incubation there
was a significant increase in the activity of 197Hg in the
toluene extracts. The blank experiments at two different
spike concentrations revealed that the amount of inorganic
mercury carried over is dependent on the amount of
inorganic mercury spiked into the sediment. This is in
agreement with data obtained previously [18].
adding reagents before the tracer or after the tracer and after 10 min of
incubation. Hg2+ additions: 0.19 and 19 ng g−1 wet sediment
We also concluded that bacterial mercury methylation
does not take place within the time it takes to add the
reagents after spiking the samples. The activity observed in
the extracts is therefore probably inorganic mercury carried
over during extraction. However, one cannot completely
exclude the process of abiotic methylation, as it is well
known that in sediments and soils a number of methyl
group donors are present, such as methyl cobalamine
(CH3CoB12) and humic and fulvic acids [24]. Among these
compounds humic matter is the most likely methylating
agent, since it is ubiquitous in aquatic environments, is
associated with mercury circulation, complexes mercury,
and methylates Hg2+ in model studies [25]. Nagase et al.
[26] demonstrated that abiotic methylation of divalent
mercury can occur through humic substances. In fresh-
waters, oxidised mercury is to a large extent bound to sulfur
groups (thiols) in humic molecules. However, humic matter
contains several different kinds of functional groups and,
besides coordination to sulfur, mercury is probably addi-
tionally coordinated to neighbouring carboxylic groups
[27]. In this sense, Weber [25] emphasised that abiotic
methylation, which includes methylation by chemicals
released to the environment by biotic processes, may be a
primary driver of CH3Hg+ production. In addition, at
polluted coastal sites, sediments may contain organometal-
lic compounds (e.g. organotins) that may also be donors of
Anal Bioanal Chem (2008) 390:2115–2122 2119

0,005
fitting gives ρ=0.91 for Podroteja sediments and ρ=0.92
WS)
(ng.gWS)
2+ -1
Hg addition: 0.19 ng.g
for Kozarska Grapa). It can be concluded from the control
-1

2+ -1
Hg addition: 19 ng.g
-1
(ng.g

0,004
samples that a certain amount of the inorganic tracer is
extraction

always carried over into the organic solvent and this is

MeHg extracts

0,003 measured in the extracts. This is in agreement with the

results obtained earlier [18], where it was shown that
Methyl-Hg

0,002 mercury carried over in the blank experiment is only

inorganic mercury. This was confirmed by the use of
Hg in
TotalHg after

validated analytical methods for mercury speciation in

197

0,001
aqueous samples based on derivatisation, gas chromato-
197
Total

graphic separation and detection by CV AFS [21].

0,000
reagents
Figures 8 and 9 show the methylation potential in
real kill fastreagents
incubation 10 min. incubation
BEFORE AFTER sediments following 24-h incubation after the control
tracer tracer
values (which include real blank, carryover of inorganic
Fig. 4 Comparison of absolute MeHg production when adding
reagents before the tracer or after the tracer and after 10 min of mercury and any abiotic formation of MeHg) were sub-
incubation. Hg2+ additions: 0.19 and 19 ng g−1 wet sediment tracted. The subtraction was performed on average values.
Methylation was considered significant if the result was

organic ligands, resulting in formation of organomercury

compounds [28]. It is therefore suggested that at all study
sites these possibilities be verified in order to assess biotic
a
Hg reduced to Hg after 24 h incubation (%.g WS)

versus abiotic methylation and the amount of inorganic replicate 1

replicate 2
-1

mercury carried over to the organic phase. The quantity 0.10 replicate 3
related to the carryover of inorganic mercury constitutes a average
blank that needs to be subtracted from the activities
obtained in the extracts after incubation.
0.05
Reduction experiments
0

In one incubation experiment on Podroteja sediment,

selenium traps were included in order to estimate the
0.00
amount of mercury that was reduced and volatilised from
the samples during incubation. The results are shown in
2+

Fig. 5a. Volatilisation of Hg0 was very low and constant at

1 10 100 1000
about 0.02% of the added tracer. At very high tracer 2+ -1
Hg spikes (ng.g WS)
additions, however, the evaporation of mercury from the
sample increased to approximately 0.1%. Hg volatilization
b 10

measurement was used to estimate the mass balance of the

system under study. It was determined that approximately 1
99% of Hg2+ added to the sample remained in the inorganic
Hg production (ng.g WS)

form or underwent the reverse transformations of methyl-

-1

0,1
ation and demethylation.
If the results are expressed as the amount of mercury
recovered as Hg(0), as shown in Fig. 5b, we may conclude 0,01

that the amount of evaporated mercury increases linearly

0

with amount of Hg2+ spikes. 1E-3

Methylation experiments
1E-4
1 10 100 1000
Figures 6 and 7 show the dependence of the blanks on the 2+ -1
Hg addition (ng.g wet sediment)
amount of added tracer, both as a percentage and in Fig. 5 a Hg2+ reduction to Hg0 after 24-h incubation in sediments
absolute terms. There is a linear relationship between the from Podroteja. b Absolute Hg0 production after 24-h incubation in
amount of tracer in the spike and in the extracts (linear sediments from Podroteja (log fitting, ρ=0.9997)
2120 Anal Bioanal Chem (2008) 390:2115–2122

run 1

Hg relative measurements (%.g WS)

run 2
-1
0.1 run 3

Hg carry over (ng.g WS)

0,01

-1
0.01

1E-3

2+
197
run 1
1E-3
run 2
197

run 3
single spike
1E-4
0.01 0.1 1 10 100 1000 0,01 0,1 1 10 100 1000
2+ -1
Hg addition (ng.g wet sediment) 2+ -1
Hg addition (ng.g wet sediment)
197
Fig. 6 Average relative and average absolute Hg measurements in control samples from Podroteja

higher by more than two standard deviations from the mean different concentrations of tracer and perform the experi-
blank value. In cases where the variability of the incubation ments in several replicates. The amount of mercury avail-
results was high, but the incubation values were higher than able for methylation in nature is usually very small.
the controls, three standard deviations from the mean Therefore, adding very low amounts of tracer in methyla-
control values were regarded as the criteria for significant tion potential studies probably gives results that have higher
methylation. environmental relevance. It is also suggested to express the
The results obtained show high variability in the esti- results obtained in absolute amounts of MeHg produced, as
mated methylation potentials. Increasing Hg2+ additions well as a percentage of the added tracer. This gives more
results in a decrease in the percentage of the tracer that is information and enables estimations of the mercury mass
methylated during incubation, but in absolute terms the balance in the environment. Moreover, if the results are
production of MeHg increases slightly. The values of expressed as the amount of mercury methylated, the
methylation potential are similar in both sediments. In our variability between the experiments using different spikes
study area this suggests that inhomogeneity of samples is much smaller compared with the results expressed as a
plays a more important role in the determination of mercury percentage of mercury added to the sediment sample. As
methylation potential than ambient mercury concentrations. shown in Figs. 8 and 9, spikes that span four orders of
The distribution of bacterial colonies in sediments is magnitude (0.019–190 pg g−1 sediment slurry) result in
scattered and the microhabitats are only a few micrometres MeHg formation between 0.01 and 0.1 ng MeHg g−1 in
in size. These factors strongly influence the potential of the Podroteja and Kozarska Grapa. Higher spikes seem to result
sediment to methylate mercury. in slightly elevated MeHg production (up to a maximum of
The results imply that the experimental determination of 0.27 ng g−1). If the results are expressed as the percentage
mercury methylation potential strongly depends on the of mercury spiked, the variability seems to be much higher,
experimental setup itself and the amount of tracer added to with a very significant trend to a lower percentage as the
the system under study. It is therefore recommended to use spike concentrations increase. In the literature, however,

run 1
Hg relative measurements (%.g-1 WS)

run 2

0, 1
Hg2+ carry over (ng.g-1 WS)

0.1

0,01

0.01
197

1E-3
197

run 1
run 2

0.1 1 10 100 1000 0,1 1 10 100 1000

Hg2+ addition (ng.g-1 wet sediment) Hg2+ addition (ng.g-1 wet sediment)
197
Fig. 7 Average relative and average absolute Hg measurements in control samples from Kozarska Grapa
Anal Bioanal Chem (2008) 390:2115–2122 2121

1
0,1
run 1

MeHg relative production (%.g-1 WS)

run 2
run 3

MeHg production (ng.g-1 WS)

0,1
0,01

0,01 1E-3
run 1
run 2
run 3

1E-3 1E-4
1 10 100 1000 1 10 100 1000
2+ -1
Hg addition (ng.g wet sediment) Hg2+ addition (ng.g-1 wet sediment)
197
Fig. 8 Average relative Hg measurements and average MeHg production after incubation in samples from Podroteja

most researchers express their results as the percentage of that there is a possibility of undetected contamination of
spiked mercury methylated. In order to be able to compare extracts with inorganic mercury. In order to prevent this, it
results between various studies, a normalized and harmo- is helpful to perform a backextraction of MeHg from the
nized way of expressing results of tracer experiments needs extracts and ascertain that there is no inorganic contamina-
to be agreed upon. tion by measurement with standard analytical methods such
This work was performed on riverine sediments, since the as CV AFS.
study area was the Idrijca river system. However, estuarine,
marine and lake sediments have different characteristics,
more abundant bacterial communities and therefore higher Conclusions
mercury methylation potentials [24]. Similar experiments on
those sediment types would probably give different results It has been shown that mercury methylation potential
and are recommended for further work. experiments using tracer additions can successfully be
The method using 197Hg2+ as the tracer is extremely applied with extremely low spikes to prevent unnecessary
sensitive and enables experiments in the range of concen- perturbation of the samples. Experiments with various
trations from picogram to microgram levels. The detection concentrations of spiked mercury showed that if the results
limit was approximately 0.001% of the added tracer, which are expressed as the amount MeHg formed the variabilities
enabled the detection of even the slightest transformation. found in spikes lower than 190 ng g−1 are mostly related to
However, unlike stable isotope methodologies, where the the inhomogeneity of the samples. At higher spikes slightly
measurements are performed on an ICP-MS where it is higher MeHg formation was found. However, if the results
possible to determine individual compounds, the drawback for MeHg are expressed as percentage mercury used to
of using radioactivity as the measure of transformations is spike the samples, the variabilities are significant, showing

1
MeHg relative production (%.g-1 WS)

0,1
run 1
MeHg production (ng.g-1 WS)

run 2

0,1
0,01

run 1
0,01
run 2
1E-3

1 10 100 1000 1 10 100 1000

2+ -1
Hg2+ addition (ng.g-1 wet sediment) Hg addition (ng.g wet sediment)
197
Fig. 9 Average relative Hg measurements and average MeHg production after incubation in samples from Kozarska Grapa
2122
a strong decreasing trend of MeHg with increasing spikes.
This indicates that the sediments have a capacity for MeHg
formation, regardless of the spikes used in this study. In
other worlds, the amount of mercury that is subjected to
methylation is rather small. It is very important that the
results are correctly expressed. As in all experiments with
sediments, sample inhomogeneity is also a large source of
variability.
In environmental studies on areas such as the mercury-
polluted site in the Idrija region, where it is important to
know how the system will react to a potential additional
input of mercury into the water system, the results of such
laboratory experiments have some limitations and should
be compared with the real environmental changes. Con-
clusions based on laboratory experiments can be misleading
unless carefully done and interpreted.
The use of high specific activity 197Hg2+ radiotracer
enables laboratory tracer experiments to follow mercury
methylation and reduction processes over a wide range of
concentrations. It was therefore possible to perform an
investigation on how these different concentrations affect
the estimation of mercury methylation potential. The results
have shown that care is needed when estimating methyla-
tion potential and interpreting the results in their environ-
mental context.
Acknowledgements This work was implemented in the framework
of the bilateral cooperation between Slovenia and Argentina entitled
“The production and the use of radiotracers in the biogeochemistry of
mercury”, the young researchers programme, the programme P1 –
0143 “Environmental cycling of nutrients and contaminants, mass
balance and modelling of environmental processes and risk assess-
ment” and the project L1–7407 “Biological methods as an early
warning system in mercury contaminated sites”. The authors also wish
to express their gratitude to Dr. Anthony Byrne for his constructive
remarks and help with the English language.
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