Absorption and accumulation characteristics of plants to soil mercury in Huainan mining area

To investigate absorption and accumulation characteristics of plants to soil mercury, plants and corresponding soils were collected from some pollution sites in Huainan mining area. The mercury contents in soils and different parts of plant (stem-leaf and root) were analyzed with atomic fluorescence spectrometer. The results show that the mean contents of soil mercury in different sampling sites ranged from 0.089 to 0.184 mg/kg, which was several times of the Soil Background Value of China and Huainan. But most soil samples belong to the secondary standard, according to GB15618-1995. The mean contents of stem-leaf and root mercury ranged from 0.029 to 0.271 mg/kg and from 0.056 to 0.191mg/kg, respectively. The bioaccumulation factor of stem-leaf and root ranged from 0.411 to 1.380 and from 0.528 to 1.303, respectively. Some plant species have a strong ability to accumulate more mercury, such as Annual fleabane, Wild artemisia and Geranium, which can be considered as hyper-accumulator plant species in the remediation of soil mercury pollution.