Skip to main content
European Commission logo
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS
Content archived on 2024-04-15

ORIGIN AND FATE OF METHYLMERCURY. SUBPROJECT 4 : EXPERIMENTAL ECOSYSTEM STUDIES ON THE BIOACCUMULATION, TRANSFER AND CHEMICAL TRANSFORMATION OF MERCURY COMPOUNDS IN THE AQUATIC ENVIRONMENT.

Objective

THIS PROJECT FORMS PART OF AN INTERDISCIPLINARY COOPERATIVE RESEARCH PROJECT WHICH WILL INVESTIGATE IN VIVO AND IN VITRO THE GEOCHEMICAL FORMATION OF METHYLMERCURY IN FRESHWATER AND MARINE ECOSYSTEMS AND ITS PATHWAYS THROUGH THE ENVIRONMENT.

THREE AREAS WILL MAINLY BE COMPARED :

A) THE MONTE AMIATA REGION, CHARACTERIZED BY A GEOCHEMICAL ANOMALY OF HIGH MERCURY CONCENTRATIONS
B) AN AREA CONTAMINATED BY MERCURY RELEASE FROM THE CHLOR-ALKALI INDUSTRY, AND
C) A CONTROL AREA WITH LOW BACKGROUND LEVELS OF MERCURY.

EMPHASIS WILL BE GIVEN TO THE FURTHER REFINEMENT AND INTERCALIBRATION OF METHODOLOGIES FOR THE DETERMINATION OF VERY LOW LEVELS OF METHYLMERCURY AND OTHER HG SPECIES OCCURING UNDER "REAL-LIFE" CONDITIONS IN THE VARIOUS COMPARTMENTS OF THE FRESHWATER AND MARINE ENVIRONMENT (WATER COLUMN, SEDIMENTS, SUSPENDED MATTER, FRESHWATER AND MARINE BIOTA).

TRACER EXPERIMENTS ON BIOAVAILABILITY, BIOACCUMULATION, LOSS AND TRANSFORMATION IN MARINE EXPERIMENTAL ECOSYSTEMS WITH EMPHASIS ON THE CHEMICAL PRODUCTION OF METHYLMERCURY WILL BE PERFORMED TO COMPARE LABORATORY AND FIELD RESULTS.
THIS SUBPROJECT WILL INVESTIGATE IN LABORATORY ECOTOXICOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS THE FATE AND TRANSFER OF MERCURY COMPOUNDS, THE SIMULATION OF THE COMPLEX RELATIONSHIPS AT THE COMMUNITY AND ECOSYSTEM LEVEL OF BIOLOGICAL ORGANISATION, AND TO INVESTIGATE THE UPTAKE MECHANISMS OF HG COMPOUNDS AT THE CELLULAR LEVEL.

Topic(s)

Data not available

Call for proposal

Data not available

Coordinator

UNIVERSITE DE BORDEAUX I
EU contribution
No data
Address
Cours de la Libération 351
33405 TALENCE
France

See on map

Total cost
No data