Effects of sulfate-reducing bacteria on methylmercury at the sediment–water interface

Sediment cores(containing sediment and overlying water) from Baihua Reservoir(SW China)were cultured under different redox conditions with different microbial activities, to understand the effects of sulfate-reducing bacteria(SRB) on mercury(Hg) methylation at sediment–water interfaces. Concentrations of dissolved methyl mercury(DMe Hg) in the overlying water of the control cores with bioactivity maintained(BAC) and cores with only sulfate-reducing bacteria inhibited(SRBI) and bacteria fully inhibited(BACI) were measured at the anaerobic stage followed by the aerobic stage. For the BAC and SRBI cores, DMe Hg concentrations in waters were much higher at the anaerobic stage than those at the aerobic stage, and they were negatively correlated to the dissolved oxygen concentrations(r =- 0.5311 and r =- 0.4977 for BAC and SRBI, respectively). The water DMe Hg concentrations of the SRBI cores were 50% lower than those of the BAC cores, indicating that the SRB is of great importance in Hg methylation in sediment–water systems, but there should be other microbes such as iron-reducing bacteria and those containing specific gene cluster(hgc AB), besides SRB,causing Hg methylation in the sediment–water system.     

Research on organic matters in the drinking water of Kaschin-Beck disease area

Organic matters in drinking water of Kaschin-Beck disease areas were extracted. Then analyses and characterization were performed by means of multiply chemical and physical methods. The results did not show the obvious difference in the frame structure of humic substances and the structure of rmcromolecular compounds in the drinking water of disease and non-disease areas, but the difference in the contents of some micromolecular compounds and radicals. The investigation also includes the preliminary research on the photoreaction of drinking water from disease and non-disease areas and the accumulation of natural organic matter in the bone of tested animals.