The biogeochemical cycle of mercury in the Augusta Bay

The Augusta basin, located in SE Sicily (southern Italy), is a semi-enclosed marine area, labelled as a highly contaminated site, especially in terms of Hg bearing species due to industrial activities. The long-term anthropogenic pressure exercised on the environment allows us to investigate simultaneously Hg fluxes from sediment to seawater and atmosphere and accumulation and biomagnification processes as regards of biota in order to define a box-model suitable to depict the Hg biogeochemical cycle in the studied area. Being interface processes those responsible of Hg dissemination and pollution in the environment, related fluxes at sediment-seawater and seawater- atmosphere boundary, they will be investigated by means of a benthic chamber and an accumulation chamber respectively.