Direct determination of total mercury in phosphate rock using alkaline fusion digestion.

The aim of this work was to develop a new method to determine the mercury (Hg) concentrations in phosphate rock using a dedicated analytical instrument (the DMA80 Tricell by Milestone) that employs an integrated sequence of thermal decomposition followed by catalyst conversion, amalgamation and atomic absorption spectrophotometry. However, this instrument underestimates Hg concentrations when phosphorite and apatite rocks are investigated with a classic thermal decomposition treatment that complies with US EPA method 7473. Therefore, to improve the recovery of total Hg, we performed alkaline fusion digestion (AFD) directly inside the furnace of the instrument, using BCR(32) as a certified reference material (Moroccan phosphate rock--phosphorite). The salts used for the AFD were a mixture of Na2CO3, K2CO3 and Li2CO3, which melt at about 400°C, due to their ability to form a ternary eutectic and to decompose the phosphorite matrices at 700°C. By adopting this analytical approach, the Hg recovery in BCR(32) was about 100%, compared to 40% when the reference material was analysed without using the alkaline fusion salt. We suggest that the AFD allowed the decomposition of the sample matrix and that some Hg compounds linked with other functional groups may be transformed in carbonates that sublimate at lower temperatures than other Hg compounds. This original method was tested on a number of different geological samples to compare the differences between the AFD method and the thermal treatment in order to verify the working range and to check the robustness of the new approach.

The key role played by the Augusta basin (southern Italy) in the mercury contamination of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Augusta basin, located in SE Sicily (southern Italy), is a semi-enclosed marine area, labelled as a highly contaminated site. The release of mercury into the harbour seawater and its dispersion to the blue water, make the Augusta basin a potential source of anthropogenic pollution for the Mediterranean Sea. A mass balance was implemented to calculate the HgT budget in the Augusta basin. Results suggest that an average of ∼0.073 kmol of HgT is released, by diffusion, on a yearly basis, from sediments to the seawater, with a consequent output of 0.162 kmol y(-1) to coastal and offshore waters; this makes the Augusta area an important contributor of mercury to the Mediterranean Sea. Owing to the geographical location of the Augusta basin, its outflowing shelf-waters are immediately intercepted by the surface Atlantic Ionian Stream (AIS) and mixed with the main gyres of the eastern Mediterranean Sea, thus representing a risk for the large-scale marine system.

Unveiling microbial life in new deep-sea hypersaline Lake Thetis. Part I: Prokaryotes and environmental settings.

In September 2008, an expedition of the RV Urania was devoted to exploration of the genomic richness of deep hypersaline anoxic lakes (DHALs) located in the Western part of the Mediterranean Ridge. Approximately 40 nautical miles SE from Urania Lake, the presence of anoxic hypersaline lake, which we named Thetis, was confirmed by swath bathymetry profiling and through immediate sampling casts. The brine surface of the Thetis Lake is located at a depth of 3258 m with a thickness of ≈ 157 m. Brine composition was found to be thalassohaline, saturated by NaCl with a total salinity of 348‰, which is one of highest value reported for DHALs. Similarly to other Mediterranean DHALs, seawater-brine interface of Thetis represents a steep pycno- and chemocline with gradients of salinity, electron donors and acceptors and posseses a remarkable stratification of prokaryotic communities, observed to be more metabolically active in the upper interface where redox gradient was sharper. [(14) C]-bicarbonate fixation analysis revealed that microbial communities are sustained by sulfur-oxidizing chemolithoautotrophic primary producers that thrive within upper interface. Besides microaerophilic autotrophy, heterotrophic sulfate reduction, methanogenesis and anaerobic methane oxidation are likely the predominant processes driving the ecosystem of Thetis Lake.