• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar
  • Home
  • About
    • Contact
    • Privacy
    • Terms of use
  • Subscribe
  • Your Membership

Science and Technology News

Dedicated to the wonder of discovery

  • News
  • Features
  • Life
  • Health
  • Research
  • Engineering

Plants play leading role in cycling toxic mercury through the environment

April 4, 2021 by Editor

Researchers studying mercury gas in the atmosphere with the aim of reducing the pollutant worldwide have determined a vast amount of the toxic element is absorbed by plants, leading it to deposit into soils.

Hundreds of tons of mercury each year are emitted into the atmosphere as a gas by burning coal, mining and other industrial and natural processes. These emissions are absorbed by plants in a process similar to how they take up carbon dioxide.

When the plants shed leaves or die, the mercury is transferred to soils where large amounts also make their way into watersheds, threatening wildlife and people who eat contaminated fish.

Exposure to high levels of mercury over long periods can lead to neurological and cardiovascular problems in humans, according to UMass Lowell’s Daniel Obrist, professor and chair of the Department of Environmental, Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, who is leading the research group.

Obrist is an expert on the cycling of mercury in the environment. In his latest project, he and UMass Lowell Research Associate Jun Zhou collected more than 200 published studies with data on mercury levels in vegetation from more than 400 locations around the world.

In evaluating this data, they determined about 88 percent of the mercury found in plants originates from plants’ leaves absorbing gaseous mercury from the atmosphere.

Globally, vegetation can take up more than 1,300 tons of mercury each year, accounting for 60 to 90 percent of it being deposited over land, according to Zhou.

The team’s findings were published this month in the academic journal Nature Reviews – Earth & Environment. The study represents the largest comprehensive review of the uptake of mercury in vegetation and its impact on mercury cycling around the world, according to the researchers.

“When I walk outside here in New England, I am always amazed at the greenness of our forest, grasslands and salt marshes. One goal of my research is to determine how strongly vegetation controls the cycling of elements – some of which can be toxic pollutants – so we can better mitigate damaging effects,” Obrist said.

The work moves scientists toward a greater understanding of how mercury cycling works, according to Zhou.

“Researchers have worked on the role that vegetation plays on cycling of mercury for over 30 years now, but the full extent of these impacts are still not yet fully realized. It was timely to write this comprehensive review and communicate to colleagues and the public about the current state of knowledge in this area,” Zhou said.

Other contributors to the study include scientists from the Environment and Climate Change Canada’s Air Quality Research Division in Quebec, and the University of Basel in Switzerland. Support for the research was provided by the US National Science Foundation and Swiss National Science Foundation.

In a separate but related project led by Obrist, researchers continue to measure how vegetation affects mercury cycling in New England forests, focusing on those in Maine and Massachusetts.

Obrist’s team is using a variety of instruments and sensors to measure the forests’ uptake of mercury in the atmosphere at various heights from above the tree canopy down to near the forest floor, allowing for daily tracking of how mercury deposition may be different in each forest and may change with the seasons.

Share this:

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Print
  • LinkedIn
  • Reddit
  • Pinterest
  • WhatsApp

Related Posts

  • Scientists sound alarm about ‘unprecedented mercury accumulation in Pacific Ocean’
    50
    Scientists sound alarm about ‘unprecedented mercury accumulation in Pacific Ocean’A newly released scientific paper in Nature Publishing's Scientific Reports Journal has revealed unprecedented amounts of highly toxic mercury are deposited in the deepest trenches of the Pacific Ocean. The study, a multi-national effort involving scientists from Denmark, Canada, Germany and Japan, reports the first-ever direct measurements of mercury deposition…
    Tags: mercury, news, environment
  • Self-watering soil could transform farming
    48
    Self-watering soil could transform farmingA new type of soil created by engineers at The University of Texas at Austin can pull water from the air and distribute it to plants, potentially expanding the map of farmable land around the globe to previously inhospitable places and reducing water use in agriculture at a time of…
    Tags: plants, news, environment
  • Fossil trees on Peru's Central Andean Plateau tell a tale of dramatic environmental change
    35
    Fossil trees on Peru's Central Andean Plateau tell a tale of dramatic environmental changeOn an expedition to the Central Andean Plateau, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) and colleagues were astounded to find a huge fossil-tree buried in the cold, grassy plain. The plant fossil record from this high-altitude site in southern Peru contains dramatic reminders that the environment in the…
    Tags: vegetation, plants, environment
  • Study reveals the workings of nature's own earthquake blocker
    34
    Study reveals the workings of nature's own earthquake blockerA new study finds a naturally occurring "earthquake gate" that decides which earthquakes are allowed to grow into magnitude 8 or greater. Sometimes, the "gate" stops earthquakes in the magnitude 7 range, while ones that pass through the gate grow to magnitude 8 or greater, releasing over 32 times as…
    Tags: news, environment
  • Using microbes to remove microplastics from the environment
    34
    Using microbes to remove microplastics from the environmentToday at the Microbiology Society's Annual Conference, Yang Liu, researcher at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, will discuss a new technique to trap and recover microplastics. The method uses bacterial biofilms, a sticky substance created by micro-organisms, to trap microplastic particles. The biofilm is then processed and dispersed, releasing the microplastic…
    Tags: news, environment

Filed Under: Environment, News Tagged With: cycling, mercury, plants, vegetation

Primary Sidebar

Latest news

  • AutoX expands robotaxi operation zone to 1,000 sq km
  • Schaeffler acquires precision gearbox maker Melior Motion 
  • Sunflower Labs provides its security drone system to range of new customers
  • Monarch Tractor showcases ‘world’s first fully electric, driver-optional tractor’
  • Robot performs laparoscopic surgery without guiding hand of a human
  • Amazon owner’s Blue Origin to buy asteroid mining company Honeybee Robotics
  • Sydney scientists achieve ‘99 per cent accuracy’ for quantum computing in silicon
  • Ceremorphic unveils plans to build supercomputer infrastructure on 5 nanometer chips
  • Motion capture is guiding the next generation of extraterrestrial robots
  • Baidu’s autonomous electric carmaker Jidu raises $400 million in Series A financing

Most read

  • AutoX expands robotaxi operation zone to 1,000 sq km
    AutoX expands robotaxi operation zone to 1,000 sq km
  • Schaeffler acquires precision gearbox maker Melior Motion 
    Schaeffler acquires precision gearbox maker Melior Motion 
  • Sunflower Labs provides its security drone system to range of new customers
    Sunflower Labs provides its security drone system to range of new customers
  • Monarch Tractor showcases ‘world’s first fully electric, driver-optional tractor’
    Monarch Tractor showcases ‘world’s first fully electric, driver-optional tractor’
  • Robot performs laparoscopic surgery without guiding hand of a human
    Robot performs laparoscopic surgery without guiding hand of a human
  • Amazon owner’s Blue Origin to buy asteroid mining company Honeybee Robotics
    Amazon owner’s Blue Origin to buy asteroid mining company Honeybee Robotics
  • Sydney scientists achieve ‘99 per cent accuracy’ for quantum computing in silicon
    Sydney scientists achieve ‘99 per cent accuracy’ for quantum computing in silicon
  • Ceremorphic unveils plans to build supercomputer infrastructure on 5 nanometer chips
    Ceremorphic unveils plans to build supercomputer infrastructure on 5 nanometer chips
  • Motion capture is guiding the next generation of extraterrestrial robots
    Motion capture is guiding the next generation of extraterrestrial robots
  • Baidu’s autonomous electric carmaker Jidu raises $400 million in Series A financing
    Baidu’s autonomous electric carmaker Jidu raises $400 million in Series A financing

Secondary Sidebar

Categories

  • Agriculture
  • Archaeology
  • Astronomy
  • Biology
  • Brain
  • Chemistry
  • Computer games
  • Computing
  • Digital Economy
  • Education
  • Energy
  • Engineering
  • Environment
  • Features
  • Genetics
  • Health
  • History
  • Industry
  • Life
  • Nature
  • News
  • Opinion
  • Physics
  • Research
  • Science
  • Social
  • Space
  • Technology
  • Uncategorized
  • Universe

Copyright © 2023 · News Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in