Wildfire effects on mercury fate in soils of North-Western Siberia.

Autor: Filimonenko E; University of Tyumen, Volodarskogo str., 6, Tyumen 625003, Russia; Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sirius Federal Area, Olympiysky pr., 1, Russia. Electronic address: eafilimonenko@mail.ru., Vatutin G; University of Tyumen, Volodarskogo str., 6, Tyumen 625003, Russia., Zherebyatyeva N; University of Tyumen, Volodarskogo str., 6, Tyumen 625003, Russia., Uporova M; University of Tyumen, Volodarskogo str., 6, Tyumen 625003, Russia., Milyaev I; University of Tyumen, Volodarskogo str., 6, Tyumen 625003, Russia., Chausоva E; University of Tyumen, Volodarskogo str., 6, Tyumen 625003, Russia., Gershelis E; Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sirius Federal Area, Olympiysky pr., 1, Russia., Alharbi SA; Department of Botany & Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia., Samokhina N; University of Tyumen, Volodarskogo str., 6, Tyumen 625003, Russia; Sirius University of Science and Technology, Sirius Federal Area, Olympiysky pr., 1, Russia., Matus F; Laboratory of Conservation and Dynamic of Volcanic Soils, Department of Chemical Sciences and Natural Resources, Universidad de La Frontera, Temuco, Chile; Network for Extreme Environmental Research, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile., Soromotin A; University of Tyumen, Volodarskogo str., 6, Tyumen 625003, Russia., Kuzyakov Y; Department of Soil Science of Temperate Ecosystems, Department of Agricultural Soil Science, University of Gottingen, 37077, Gottingen, Germany; Peoples Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), 117198 Moscow, Russia. Electronic address: kuzyakov@gwdg.de.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Nov 15; Vol. 951, pp. 175572. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Aug 15.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175572
Abstrakt: Arctic soils store 49 Gg mercury (Hg) - an extremely toxic heavy metal, whereas soil Hg can be released to the atmosphere by wildfires. For the first time we investigated the effects of wildfires on the fate of soil Hg in North-Western (NW) Siberia based on GIS maps of areas burned during the last 38 years and a field paired comparison of unburned and burned areas in tundra (mosses, lichens, some grasses, and shrubs) and forest-tundra (multi-layered canopy of larch trees, shrubs, mosses, and lichens). These field surveys were deepened by soil controlled burning to assess the Hg losses from organic horizon and mineral soil. The soil Hg stocks in the organic horizon and in the top 10 cm of the mineral soil were 3.3 ± 0.6 and 16 ± 3 mg Hg m -2 for unburned tundra and forest-tundra, respectively. After the burning by wildfires, the soil Hg stocks decreased to 2.4 ± 0.1 and 6.6 ± 0.2 mg Hg m -2 for tundra and forest-tundra, respectively. By the averages annual burned areas in NW Siberia 527 km 2 , wildfires in tundra and forest-tundra released 0.19 and 2.9 Mg soil Hg per year, respectively, corresponding to 28 % and 59 % of the initial soil Hg stocks. These direct effects of wildfires on Hg volatilization are raised by indirect post-pyrogenic consequences on Hg fate triggered by the vegetation succession and adsorption of atmospheric Hg on the surface of charred biomass. Charred lichens and trees accumulated 4-16 times more Hg compared to the living biomass. Blackened burned vegetation and soil reduced surface albedo and slowly increased soil temperatures in Arctic after wildfires. This created favorable conditions for seeding grasses and shrubs after wildfire and transformed burned high-latitude ecosystems into greener areas, increasing their capacity to trap atmospheric Hg by vegetation, which partly compensate the burning losses of soil Hg.
Competing Interests: 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.
(Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier B.V.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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