Mercury contamination in surface sediments and sediment cores of the Mersey Estuary, UK

摘要

Mercury (Hg) is one of the most important heavy metals in estuarine and coastal sediments. This is due to its toxic effect on marine invertebrates and tendency for the methyl-Hg to bio-accumulate up trophic levels, where it can enter humans via the inges-tion of fish and shellfish (Boening, 2000; Bryan and Langston, 1992; Haitzer et al., 2003; Long et al., 1995). The Mersey Estuary (NW England, UK) has a highly industrialised and urbanised drainage basin of approximately 5000 km~2. Elevated Hg concentrations (>2 mg/kg) in sediments from the Mersey Estuary can be attributed in part to the high density of chemical factories in the Widnes-Runcorn area (Fig. 1). In particular, the alkali, bleaching and detergents industries developed in this area in the mid-19th century used the Castner-Kellner process for large-scale sodium hydroxide and bleach production.