Distribution of mercury and methylmercury in ice-water-sediments in lakes during the freezing period under the influence of ice cover.

The presence of lake ice cover alters the subglacial water environment, thereby influencing the migration and transformation of mercury (Hg) and methylmercury (MeHg) within the ice-water-sediment media of lakes. This study investigated the occurrence characteristics of mercury and methylmercury in various environmental compartments within lakes located at high latitudes in cold regions during the freezing period. To this end, Wuliangsuhai Lake, the largest freshwater lake situated at 40°N in China, was selected as the study site. The contents of mercury and methylmercury in lake ice were determined for the first time. The percentage of methylmercury (MeHg%) and ice-water partition coefficient were analyzed. The pollution situation and health risk were evaluated by single factor pollution index. The results show that the ice body and water body of Wuliangsuhai are not polluted by mercury and methylmercury, but some sampling points in the sediment are slightly polluted. The mercury content in sediment is negatively correlated with the ice thickness, and the methylmercury content in water is positively correlated with the methylmercury content in sediment, but negatively correlated with the ice thickness. The migration ability of methylmercury in ice-water system is stronger than that of mercury. The MeHg% of water in ice period is higher than that in non-freezing period, which is different from other lakes without ice sheet. The results show that in the dynamic equilibrium of methylation and demethylation in the high-latitude lake water, the methylation is higher in the ice period than in the non-freezing period due to the influence of light intensity, while the mercury in the non-freezing period is more susceptible to the demethylation.

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Declaration of Competing Interest ☒ The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper. ☐ The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: