Engineering Commons^™

Mercury Interactions With Suspended Solids At The Upper East Fork Poplar Creek, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, Elsa Cabrejo

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A water quality model was developed to analyze the impact of hydrological events on mercury contamination of the Upper East Fork Poplar Creek, Tennessee. The model simulates surface and subsurface hydrology and transport (MIKE SHE and MIKE 11) and it is coupled with the reactive transport of sediments and mercury (ECOLAB). The model was used to simulate the distribution of mercury contamination in the water and sediments as a function of daily hydrological events.

Results from the model show a high correlation between suspended solids and mercury in the water due to the affinity of mercury with suspended organics. The …

A Preliminary Characterization Of Mercury Uptake By The Sulfate-Reducing Bacteria Desulfovibrio Desulfuricans, Amaury Pedro Betancourt Iii

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The focus of this research is to determine if a relationship exists between the stability constant and the initial uptake rate of a mercury species by bacteria. Cultures of the sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) strain Desulfovibrio desulfuricans G20 were washed with a bicarbonate buffer solution containing either lactate and sulfate or pyruvate and fumarate. The washed cell solutions were then spiked with either mercury bound to natural organic matter (Hg-NOM) or neutral mercury chloride (HgCl₂), followed by sampling over time to provide kinetic data. Despite the significantly different stability constants for Hg-NOM and HgCl₂, the calculated initial …