Assessing mercury pollution in Amazon River tributaries using a Bayesian Network approach
Assessing mercury pollution in Amazon River tributaries using a Bayesian Network approach
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DOI：
10.1016/j.ecoenv.2018.09.099
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发表时间：
2018-12-30
影响因子：
6.8
通讯作者：
Goonetilleke, Ashantha
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Bonotto, Daniel Marcos;Wijesiri, Buddhi;Goonetilleke, Ashantha
由于汞的高毒性，水体的汞污染对人类和生态系统的健康产生重大影响。在亚马逊河及其支流和相关湖泊中检测到相对较高的汞含量。该研究采用贝叶斯网络方法，调查地质来源对亚马逊河最大支流马德拉河流域湖泊汞污染的影响。结果表明，天然汞的来源指标与湖泊沉积物中的汞既有正相关关系，也有负相关关系。虽然正相关表明地质和土壤形成的影响，但负相关意味着手工和小规模采矿业中使用汞合金进行黄金提取（这是汞的主要人为来源）也会导致亚马逊支流中的汞。这一点更加明显，因为发现湖泊沉积物中的汞浓度明显高于周围岩石中的汞浓度。然而，由于该地区个体和小型金矿开采活动最近有所减少，因此潜在的人为汞来源于金矿开采的历史输入。
Mercury pollution of water bodies exerts significant human and ecosystem health impacts due to high toxicity. Relatively high levels of mercury have been detected in the Amazon River and its tributaries and associated lakes. The study employed a Bayesian Network approach to investigate the contribution from geogenic sources to mercury pollution of lakes in the Madeira River basin, which is the largest tributary of the Amazon River. It was found that the source indicators of naturally occurring mercury have both, positive and negative relationships with mercury in lake sediments. Although the positive relationships indicated the influence of geological and soil formations, the negative relationships implied that the use of mercury amalgam for gold extraction in artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM), which is the primary anthropogenic source of mercury, also contribute to mercury in Amazon tributaries. This was further evident as mercury concentrations in lake sediments were found to be significantly higher than those in the surrounding rocks. However, potential anthropogenic mercury was attributed to historical inputs from gold mining due to the recent decline of ASM mining practice in the region.