Distribution of mercury in the sediment of Terengganu River Estuary, Terengganu

Abstract

The focus of this study was to determine the merc ury distribution in sediment and also to study about relationship between Hg concentration and mean particle size of sediment and total organic carbon at Terengganu river Estuarine sediment and also its relationship with changes of monsoon season.Sampling was done for twice and for each sarnpling,involving 1 O.Concentration of Hg was determined using ICP­ MS.According to the result,distribution of Hg concentration varied from 0.00520.0112

µgig for first sampling (Pre Monsoon) and 0.1738-0.3878 µgig for second sampling (Post Monsoon).For the correlation between Hg concentration with mean particle size for Pre Monsoon sampling,it shows almost negligible correlation (r=0.1844) while for sampling Post Monsoon,it shows low correlation with mean particle size (r=0.361 ).Hg concentration has almost negligible correlation with sampling stations for first sampling (r=0.0632) and for the second sampling.Hg concentration has moderate correlation with sampling stations (r= 0.4550).Correlation between Hg concentration before Pre Monsoon and Post is low (r=0.2449).Besides that,Hg concentration has moderate correlation with organic carbon for both sampling.From the result �overall almost stations which was analysed have Hg concentration exceed the Hg concentration in uncontaminated sediment which is 0.05 µgig for second sampling (Post Monsoon).