PARENT SESSION
80 - Biomonitoring and Assessment
8:00 AM to 6:30 PM, Wednesday, 15 May 2002
Exhibition Area

(80-29) Total mercury and its bioaccumulation factors of mushrooms from the Zaborski Landscape Park, Poland.

Falandysz, Jerzy^*,1, Strumnik, Katarzyna¹, Lipka, Krzysztof¹, Kawano, Masahide², Gucia, Magdalena¹, Kannan, Kurunthachalam³, ¹ Department of Environmental Chemistry and Ecotoxicology,University of Gdansk, 18 Sobieskiego St., Gdansk, Poland² Department of Environmental Analytical Chemistry, Ehime University, 3-5-7 Tarumi, Matsuyama, Japan³ National Food Safety and Toxicology Centre, Michigan State University, East Lansing, USA

ABSTRACT- Total mercury concentrations were determined by the cold-vapour atomic absorption spectroscopy (CV-AAS) in 117 samples of the caps, 117 of the stalks and 47 of the whole fruiting bodies of 13 species of wild growing mushrooms and in 164 samples of underlying soil substrate collected from the Zaborski Landscape Park in summer and autumn of 1997 and 1998. The area of the study is a background-forested site with rural landscape around and without any local sources of mercury emission. The mean mercury concentrations of the mushrooms varied largely (range between 50±20 and 3700±1700 ng/g dry matter) depending on the site and mushroom species investigated, while less varied in soil samples (between 3.0±3.0 and 43±17 ng/g dry matter). The fruiting bodies of Common Puffball Lycoprdon perlatum and of King Bolete Boletus edulis showed greatest concentrations of mercury, which reached 3700±1700 and 2600±1200 ng/g dry matter, respectively. For the species such as Slippery Jack Suillus luteus and Fly Agaric Amanita muscaria (caps) a positive (p<0.01) and for Russula emetica a negative (p<0.01) correlation between the mercury content and fruiting body viz. substrate soil concentration. The bioconcentration factor (BCF) values of total mercury in the caps or whole fruiting bodies were greatest for Common Pufball (L. perlatum), King Bolete (B. edulis) and Larch bolete (S. grevillei) between 130±78 and 160±120, while for the other species investigated were between 2.0±0.7 and 61±20 in the caps, and 1.6±0.4 and 62±49 in the stalks. The values of the cap/stalk Hg quotient were from 1.1±0.5 for Poison Pax Paxillus involutus to 2.7±1.7 for Suillus grevillei.

Key words: mercury, mushrooms , accumulation, pollution