珊瑚礁生态系统中的汞循环研究进展

珊瑚礁生态系统具有丰富的生物多样性、极高的初级生产力、快速的物质循环等特点,被称为"海洋中的热带雨林",在维系全球生态环境方面发挥重要作用。由于绝大部分珊瑚礁位于近海,有害金属元素如汞能够通过各种渠道进入珊瑚礁生长水域,在珊瑚礁生物中富集并经过食物链放大,对珊瑚礁生态系统造成潜在危害。本文简单介绍了珊瑚礁系统的基本概念、组成和生态功能,并汇总了目前报道的珊瑚礁生态系统中海水、沉积物、食物网、珊瑚中的汞的含量与形态。总体上,珊瑚礁生态系统中的汞研究极其有限,目前对该重要系统中的汞循环并不清楚。未来可结合稳定汞同位素方法对珊瑚礁生态系统汞的来源、迁移与转化进行示踪,认清珊瑚礁的汞汇通量,发展珊瑚骨骼对生长水域汞污染的监测技术和理论。

Mercury Cycling in Coral Reef Ecosystems: A Review

Coral reef ecosystem is characterized by rich biodiversity, high primary productivity and rapid material circulation. It is called "tropical rainforest in the ocean" and plays an important role in maintaining the global ecological environment. As most coral reefs are located near the coastal areas, the harmful metallic elements such as mercury can enter coral reef living waters via various pathways, and then are enriched in coral reef organisms and amplified through the food chain, causing potential harm to coral reef ecosystem. This paper briefly introduces the basic concept, composition and ecological functions of coral reef system, and summarizes the contents and forms of mercury in seawater, sediment, food webs and corals in coral reef ecosystem. In general, the research on mercury in coral reef ecosystem is extremely limited, and the mercury cycle in this important system is now largely unknown. In the future, stable mercury isotope method can be used to trace the source, migration and transformation of mercury in coral reef ecosystem, to quantify the mercury sink of coral reef, and to develop the monitoring technology and theory of mercury pollution in growing waters by coral skeletons.