Mercury and its bioconcentration factors in fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) from spatially distant sites in Poland

Abstract

Total mercury content has been determined in the fruiting bodies of fly agaric (Amanita muscaria) and topsoil layer (0–10 cm) collected from 14 spatially distant sites across Poland. Mercury was measured by cold-vapor atomic absorption spectroscopy (CV-AAS) after nitric acid (mushrooms) or nitric acid and sulfuric acid (soil) digestion of the samples. The caps, depending on the site, contained total mercury at mean concentrations from 0.24 ± 0.13 to 1.4 ± 0.6 μg/g dm (median 0.19–1.4 μg/g dm), and stalks from 0.18 ± 0.06 to 0.71 ± 0.26 μg/g dm (median 0.18–0.67 μ g/g dm). An overall-mean the total mercury content for 204 caps and stalks was, respectively, 0.73 ± 0.55 (0.05–3.3 μg/g dm) and 0.43 ± 0.33 (0.09–2.3 μg/g dm).

Keywords:

• BCF
• bioindication
• fungi
• heavy metals
• mineral composition
• mushrooms

Acknowledgment

This study has been supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education under Grant No. DS-8025-4-0092-7.

Notes

*For site location see Fig. 1.

*Median value;

^#Median was 1.1 μg/g dm;

^‡Number of samples and number of specimens (in parenthese);

^a Precambrian shales;

^b Occurrence of uranium/vanadium ores;

^c Methylmercury 0.63 (0.56–0.71) μg/g dm and

^d young specimen-methylmercury 0.27 μg/g dm, and BCF 3.0–10.