Mercury in the freshwater lakes of Schirmacher and Larsemann Hills, Antarctica

The Polar Regions have long been recognized as important sinks for the aerosol, including mercury derived from natural and anthropogenic sources at lower latitudes. The volatile metals like Hg and Pb introduce to atmosphere mostly through burning of fossil fuel. Generally, the distribution of mercury in environmental media is related to pH, oxygen content, organic matter, reducing agents and microbial activity. In this paper we report for the first time, observed concentration of total dissolved mercury in the water samples. These water samples collected during austral summer of 2009 from lakes of Schirmacher Hills (SH), and Larsemann Hills (LH)- the two sites of Indian research activities in Antarctica. Mercury was determined using a Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (CVAAS) method. The data provides the baseline concentration of Hg in the aquatic system of East Antarctica, The results show that mercury distribution varies in the range of 0.063–3.65 (1.0±1.41) μgL⁻¹ in lakes of Larsemann Hills ngL⁻¹ and 0.27–0.72 (0.49 ±0.24) μgL⁻¹ in lakes of Schirmacher Hills.