Abstract
The Elbe river, running through the Czech Republic and Germany is polluted heavily by a large variety of chemicals, but mercury is the dominant pollutant. Chloralkaline plants in the Czech Republic and in Eastern Germany, as well as an acetaldehyde production, discharged often more than 25 t Hg/year into the river and its tributaries. The measured concentrations for total mercury often exceed 100 mg Hg/kg in sediments or suspended matter, compared to a background of about 0.2 mg/kg.
The organic species of mercury encountered are methylmercury compounds in both the sediments and the floodplain soils and dimethylmercury in the soil air. These concentrations vary during the year the highest concentrations are found in summer, as shown by the analysis of sediment cores.
The speciation of mercury changes along the length profile of the Elbe river: as the mercury is transported towards the North Sea, its association with high molecular weight humic substances increases, which is of importance for the availability of this metal.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Wilken, R.-D. (1991): Die Belastung der Elbe im Vergleich zu anderen deutschen Flüssen. Wasserwirtschaft-Wassertechnik 4, S. 134–136.
Hintelmann, H. and Wilken, R.-D. (1993): The analysis of organic mercury compounds using liquid chromatography with on-line atomic fluorescencespectrometric detection, Appl. Organomet. Chem. Vol. 7: 173–180
Wilken, R.-D. and Weiler, K. (1986): Quecksilbermaxima im Schwebstoff der Elbe. Deutsch. Gewässert Mittl. 30, 19–20.
ARGE Elbe, Schwermetalldaten der Elbe von Schnackenburg bis zur See, 1979/80
Ebinghaus, R., Hintelmann, H. and Wilken, R.-D. (1994): Mercury Cycling in surface waters and in the atmosphere — Species-analysis for the investigation of transformation- and transport properties of mercury, Fresenius J Anal Chem, 350, Vol. 1–2, S. 21–29.
Ebinghaus, R. and Wilken, R.-D. (1993): Transformations of mercury species in the presence of Elbe river bacteria, Appl. Organomet. Chem. 7: 127–135
Wilken, R.-D. and Hintelmann, H. (1991): Mercury and methylmercury in sediments and suspended particles from the river Elbe, North Germany. Water, Air and Soil Pollution 56, p. 427–437
Wilken, R.-D., Fänger, H.-U. and Guhr, H. (1994): Ergebnisse der Hochwassermessungen 1993/94. In: Die Elbe im Spannungsfeld zwischen Ökologie und Ökonomie. B.G. Teubner Verlagsgesellschaft. Stuttgart, Leipzig. S. 125–135.
Wilken, R.-D., Christiansen, H., Fanger, H.-U., Greiser, N., Haar, S., Puls, W., Reincke, H., Spott, D. and Vollmer, M. (1991) Fakten und Hypothesen zum Schwebstoff und Schadstofftransport in der ElbeVom Wasser, 76, 167–189. GKSS 91/E/35.
Ebinghaus, R. and Wilken, R.-D. (1993): Formation and decomposition of methylmercuryin the presence of bacteria. Proc. International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment, Toronto, September 12–17, CEP Consult., Vol. 2, 305–308.
Hintelmann, H. and Wilken, R.-D. (1993): Factors affecting the occurence of Mercury and Methylmercury in Sediments. Proc. International Conference on Heavy Metals in the Environment, Toronto, September 12–17, CEP Consult., Vol. 2, 309–312.
Hintelmann, H. and Wilken, R.-D. (1995): Levels of total mercury and methylmercury compounds in sediments of the polluted Elbe River: influence of seasonally and spatially varying environmental factors. Science total Environm 166:1–10
Wallschläger, D., Hintelmann, H., Evans, R.D. and Wilken, R.-D. (1995): Volatilization of dimethylmercury and elemental mercury from river Elbe floodplain soils, Water Air Soil Pollut., in press
Craig, P. J. and Moreton, P. A. (1983): Total Mercury, Methyl Mercury and Sulphide in River Carron Sediments, Mar. Poll. Bull. 14: 408–411
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1996 Kluwer Academic Publishers
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Wilken, RD., Wallschläger, D. (1996). The Elbe River: A Special Example for a European River Contaminated Heavily with Mercury. In: Baeyens, W., Ebinghaus, R., Vasiliev, O. (eds) Global and Regional Mercury Cycles: Sources, Fluxes and Mass Balances. NATO ASI Series, vol 21. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1780-4_16
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-1780-4_16
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7295-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-009-1780-4
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive