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Mercury Contents of Soil, Mosses, and Conifers, Along an Urban-suburban Transect

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 August 2009

Mark Mondano  and
William H. Smith
Mark Mondano
Affiliation:
School of Medicine, University of Vermont, Burlington, Vermont 05401, U.S.A.
William H. Smith
Affiliation:
Assistant Dean and Associate Professor of Forest Pathology, School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut 06511, U.S.A.
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Extract

Soil, moss, and conifer twig and needle, samples were collected along an urban-suburdan transect in Connecticut. All samples were analyzed for mercury content. In general, both the mosses and tree tissues contained higher concentrations of mercury than did the soil. Except for the plant samples collected at the origin of the transect adjacent to an electric generating facility, where the mercury in a moss exceeded that in a Juniperus virginiana tree, the floral components that were sampled proved comparable. Moss sampling would probably give the more reliable indication of urban-industrial mercury contamination.

Type
Main Papers
Information
Environmental Conservation , Volume 1 , Issue 3 , Autumn 1974 , pp. 201 - 203
Copyright
Copyright © Foundation for Environmental Conservation 1974

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