Peer-reviewedCC BY 4.0ACS Omega17 Oct 2026

Vegetation-Associated Mercury Patterns and Biogeochemical Signals in a Tropical Urban Mining Region

Jerusa Schneider¹
Sheyla dos Santos Brito¹
André Massanobu Ueno Kunifoshita¹
Ricardo Lopes Tortorela de Andrade²
Anne-Hélène Fostier³
James Lambert-Smith⁴
Maria José Maluf de Mesquita¹

4 affiliations

¹University of Campinas (UNICAMP) , , Rua Carlos Gomes, 250 , , ,
²Federal University of Mato Grosso (UFMT) , , Av. Alexandre Ferronato, 1200 , , ,
³University of Campinas (UNICAMP) , , P.O. Box 6154 , , ,
⁴Cardiff University , , Main Building, Park Place , , ,

Abstract

To evaluate vegetation-associated mercury (Hg) loading in tropical regions affected by artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), we quantified total mercury (HgT) in canopy leaves and leaf litter of Licania tomentosa across an ASGM-impacted urban center, Peixoto de Azevedo (PEI), and two lower-exposure reference sites: Nova Santa Helena (ASH) and a native forest fragment (ANM). Canopy leaves reached up to 543 μg kg–1 near gold-buying shops, with probabilistic modeling identifying a high-concentration subpopulation extending to 607 μg kg–1. Leaf litter consistently exhibited higher HgT than paired canopy leaves (RatioC = 1.39–4.70; mean = 3.15), indicating relative enrichment during senescence. Spatial interpolation suggested sharply localized vegetation-associated Hg hotspots within ∼300 m of gold-trading units, superimposed on a heterogeneous urban baseline. The regional baseline was defined using ASH, where HgT concentrations ranged from 6.82 to 35.31 μg kg–1 after excluding a single transport-related outlier. These results demonstrate that gold-trading corridors are plausible localized contributors to elevated HgT in urban vegetation and may produce Hg-enriched biomass that can enter municipal waste streams. This framework provides a high-resolution, low-cost approach for Hg surveillance in tropical ASGM regions and offers chemically grounded insight into vegetation-associated Hg patterns and biogeochemical partitioning in urban environments.

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BibTeX RIS

BibTeX

@article{schneider2026vegetationassociated,
  title = {{Vegetation-Associated Mercury Patterns and Biogeochemical Signals in a Tropical Urban Mining Region}},
  author = {Jerusa Schneider and Sheyla dos Santos Brito and André Massanobu Ueno Kunifoshita and Ricardo Lopes Tortorela de Andrade and Anne-Hélène Fostier and James Lambert-Smith and Maria José Maluf de Mesquita},
  journal = {ACS Omega},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1021/acsomega.6c07837},
  url = {https://pubs.acs.org/acsodf/article/doi/10.1021/acsomega.6c07837/5453287/Vegetation-Associated-Mercury-Patterns-and},
  note = {CC BY 4.0},
}

RIS

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Vegetation-Associated Mercury Patterns and Biogeochemical Signals in a Tropical Urban Mining Region
AU  - Jerusa Schneider
AU  - Sheyla dos Santos Brito
AU  - André Massanobu Ueno Kunifoshita
AU  - Ricardo Lopes Tortorela de Andrade
AU  - Anne-Hélène Fostier
AU  - James Lambert-Smith
AU  - Maria José Maluf de Mesquita
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/17
JO  - ACS Omega
DO  - 10.1021/acsomega.6c07837
UR  - https://pubs.acs.org/acsodf/article/doi/10.1021/acsomega.6c07837/5453287/Vegetation-Associated-Mercury-Patterns-and
AB  - To evaluate vegetation-associated mercury (Hg) loading in tropical regions affected by artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM), we quantified total mercury (HgT) in canopy leaves and leaf litter of Licania tomentosa across an ASGM-impacted urban center, Peixoto de Azevedo (PEI), and two lower-exposure reference sites: Nova Santa Helena (ASH) and a native forest fragment (ANM). Canopy leaves reached up to 543 μg kg–1 near gold-buying shops, with probabilistic modeling identifying a high-concentration subpopulation extending to 607 μg kg–1. Leaf litter consistently exhibited higher HgT than paired canopy leaves (RatioC = 1.39–4.70; mean = 3.15), indicating relative enrichment during senescence. Spatial interpolation suggested sharply localized vegetation-associated Hg hotspots within ∼300 m of gold-trading units, superimposed on a heterogeneous urban baseline. The regional baseline was defined using ASH, where HgT concentrations ranged from 6.82 to 35.31 μg kg–1 after excluding a single transport-related outlier. These results demonstrate that gold-trading corridors are plausible localized contributors to elevated HgT in urban vegetation and may produce Hg-enriched biomass that can enter municipal waste streams. This framework provides a high-resolution, low-cost approach for Hg surveillance in tropical ASGM regions and offers chemically grounded insight into vegetation-associated Hg patterns and biogeochemical partitioning in urban environments.
SN  - 2470-1343
ER  -

Abstract

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