Correlation of mercury concentrations in tree core and lichen samples in southeastern Louisiana

Abstract To determine if a correlation exists between mercury concentrations in lichens and wood from tree cores, tree core and lichen samples were taken from sites under mercury advisories and analyzed for mercury using a Bacharach 50B Mercury Analyzer System employing the Manual Cold Vapor Atomic Absorption EPA method 7471A. Wood from tree cores was dated using tree ring data. Wood samples from the cores were analyzed for various depths in the tree core (periods of time) to determine if variations occur throughout the cores. Preliminary data indicate that a strong correlation exists between mercury concentrations in tree core and lichen samples. Samples were analyzed for the 6-month period of summer 2003–winter 2004. A correlation coefficient of 0.882 was found between the tree core and lichen data sets. The derived correlations were used to estimate concentrations of mercury in tree rings for sites in lichen samples which were previously analyzed. These predicted values compared favorably to recently determined concentrations of Hg in tree cores. The strong correlation between lichen and tree core Hg concentrations suggests similar uptake mechanism for the two types of biota.