Mercury in the soil-plant-deer-predator food chain of a temperate forest in Slovenia

Total mercury and methylmercury concentrations from long-term monitoring of the terrestrial soil-vegetation-herbivore-carnivore food chain with regard to accumulation and transformation processes were studied in areas of Slov enia contaminated with mercury to differing degrees, as well as uncontamina ted areas. Assessment of the inhaled and ingested contribution of mercury f rom the environment in roe deer (Capreolus capreolus L.), the selected wild mammal species living in these areas, showed that while the ratio between these two routes of uptake is relatively constant, food intake of mercury i n roe deer is much more important than inhaled mercury, which represents on ly up to 0.2% of ingested Hg. Although the plant species comprising roe dee r foodstuffs were not active accumulators of mercury from soil or air, vege tation mediates significant transfer of Me-Hg to herbivores, and this becom es subject to further accumulation in the higher trophic levels of this foo d chain. Besides roe deer other bioindicators such as chamois (Rupicapra ru picapra L.) were selected to confirm the uptake of mercury from plants. Tho ugh the conclusions drawn from the carnivorous predators lynx (Felis lynx L .) and wolves (Canislupus L.) are limited due to the limited number of subj ects (8 and 2, respectively), the results and their comparison to other env ironmental data showed the transfer of Hg from soil (and air) to vegetation , herbivores and carnivores further up the food chain. The results of the m easurements as well as concentration factors (GF) and bio-accumulation fact ors (BAF) show appreciable accumulation of Me-Hg and less marked accumulati on of T-HS at higher trophic levels of this terrestrial food chain. Interes tingly, higher accumulation of Me-Hg was observed in those environments pol luted with high concentrations of inorganic mercury compared to less contam inated and control areas.