Evangelos Kakouros

Experimental removal of wetland emergent vegetation leads to decreased methylmercury production in surface sediment

[1] We performed plant removal (devegetation) experiments across a suite of ecologically diverse wetland settings (tidal salt marshes, river floodplain, rotational rice fields, and freshwater wetlands with permanent or seasonal flooding) to determine the extent to which the presence (or absence) of actively growing plants influences the activity of the Hg(II)-methylating microbial community and the availability of Hg(II) to those microbes. Vegetated control plots were paired with neighboring devegetated plots in which photosynthetic input was terminated 4-8 months prior to measurements, through clipping aboveground biomass, severing belowground connections, and shading the sediment surface to prevent regrowth. Across all wetlands, devegetation decreased the activity of the Hg(II)-methylating microbial community (k meth ) by 38%, calculated MeHg production potential (MP) rates by 36%, and pore water acetate concentration by 78%. Decreases in MP were associated with decreases in microbial sulfate reduction in salt marsh settings. In freshwater agricultural wetlands, decreases in MP were related to indices of microbial iron reduction. Sediment MeHg concentrations were also significantly lower in devegetated than in vegetated plots in most wetland settings studied. Devegetation effects were correlated with live root density (percent volume) and were most profound in vegetated sites with higher initial pore water acetate concentrations. Densely rooted wetlands had the highest rates of microbial Hg(II)-methylation activity but often the lowest concentrations of bioavailable reactive Hg(II). We conclude that the exudation of labile organic carbon (e.g., acetate) by plants leads to enhanced microbial sulfate and iron reduction activity in the rhizosphere, which results in high rates of microbial Hg(II)-methyation and high MeHg concentrations in wetland sediment.

Mercury cycling in agricultural and managed wetlands of California, USA: Seasonal influences of vegetation on mercury methylation, storage, and transport

Plants are a dominant biologic and physical component of many wetland capable of influencing the internal pools and fluxes of methylmercury (MeHg). To investigate their role with respect to the latter, we examined the changing seasonal roles of vegetation biomass and Hg, C and N composition from May 2007-February 2008 in 3 types of agricultural wetlands (domesticated or white rice, wild rice, and fallow fields), and in adjacent managed natural wetlands dominated by cattail and bulrush (tule). We also determined the impact of vegetation on seasonal microbial Hg methylation rates, and Hg and MeHg export via seasonal storage in vegetation, and biotic consumption of rice seed. Despite a compressed growing season of ~3months, annual net primary productivity (NPP) was greatest in white rice fields and carbon more labile (leaf median C:N ratio=27). Decay of senescent litter (residue) was correlated with microbial MeHg production in winter among all wetlands. As agricultural biomass accumulated from July to August, THg concentrations declined in leaves but MeHg concentrations remained consistent, such that MeHg pools generally increased with growth. Vegetation provided a small, temporary, but significant storage term for MeHg in agricultural fields when compared with hydrologic export. White rice and wild rice seeds reached mean MeHg concentrations of 4.1 and 6.2ng gdw(-1), respectively. In white rice and wild rice fields, seed MeHg concentrations were correlated with root MeHg concentrations (r=0.90, p<0.001), suggesting transport of MeHg to seeds from belowground tissues. Given the proportionally elevated concentrations of MeHg in rice seeds, white and wild rice crops may act as a conduit of MeHg into biota, especially waterfowl which forage heavily on rice seeds within the Central Valley of California, USA. Thus, while plant tissues and rhizosphere soils provide temporary storage for MeHg during the growing season, export of MeHg is enhanced post-harvest through increased hydrologic and biotic export.