Speciation of mercury in water and in the air above the water was studied. The effects of hydrogen peroxide, bacterial growth medium, and both living and dead bacteria (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) were tested. Both living and dead bacteria transport metallic mercury from water into air. The amount of total Hg produced in the head space was similar in living or dead bacterial and hydrogen peroxide systems, [Formula: see text]. Hydrogen peroxide stabilized Hg 2+ in the system. Partition coefficients were calculated from the corrected concentrations in the head space using literature solubility values for air/water phases. It is possible that Hg 0 could be produced biologically or/and abiologically in a microenvironment within suspended particulate matter under favorable conditions. Further movement into air or subsequent transformation would depend on the physicochemical properties of the bulk water.
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Ramamoorthy et al. (1983) studied this question.
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