Qiu Guangle, Abeysinghe Kasun S, Yang Xiao-Dong, Xu Zhidong, Xu Xiaohang, Luo Kang, Goodale Eben
State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry, Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guiyang, 550081, China.
University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China.
Bull Environ Contam Toxicol. 2019 Mar;102(3):329-334. doi: 10.1007/s00128-019-02542-z. Epub 2019 Jan 14.
Few reports of the relationship exist between mercury (Hg) and selenium (Se) from locations of severe Hg contamination in terrestrial environments. Here, we report the concentrations of Hg and Se as well as Se:Hg molar ratios in biotic samples collected from a region with a long history of Hg mining. Nitrogen isotopes (δN) were analyzed to confirm the trophic levels. Results showed that bird feathers at the top trophic level exhibited the highest Hg concentrations, while the lowest concentrations were found in herbivorous insects, demonstrating a significant biomagnification across the food chain. In contrast, herbivorous insects of different types (generalists vs. specialized rice pests) exhibited both the highest and the lowest concentrations of Se, indicating a lack of biomagnification. Indeed, Se was correlated positively with Hg when Se:Hg ratios were greater than one, suggesting Se:Hg molar ratios can be a controlling influence on Hg in terrestrial organisms.
关于陆地环境中汞（Hg）污染严重地区汞与硒（Se）之间关系的报道很少。在此，我们报告了从一个有着悠久汞矿开采历史的地区采集的生物样本中汞和硒的浓度以及硒与汞的摩尔比。分析了氮同位素（δN）以确定营养级。结果表明，处于最高营养级的鸟类羽毛汞浓度最高，而草食性昆虫中的汞浓度最低，这表明汞在食物链中存在显著的生物放大作用。相比之下，不同类型的草食性昆虫（多食性昆虫与专食性水稻害虫）的硒浓度既有最高值也有最低值，这表明不存在生物放大作用。实际上，当硒与汞的摩尔比大于1时，硒与汞呈正相关，这表明硒与汞的摩尔比可能对陆地生物中的汞有控制作用。
