WU Pianpian giving presentation

WU Pianpian from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU) visited the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry (SKLEG), Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS) at the invitation of Dr. SHANG Lihai.

On the afternoon of April 17th, WU Pianpian presented the academic report entitled “Mercury cycling and human health concerns in boreal lakes in Sweden” in the lecture hall of the State Key Laboratory of Ore Deposit Geochemistry (SKLODG).

The report started with the mercury cycling, bioaccumulation of mercury in the circulation, and human mercury exposure, describing that Sweden attaches great importance to the research of environmental mercury. Then WU Pianpian made a thorough analysis on the mercury research over the years in SLU and proposed the common problems existing in the global research on mercury.

Furthermore, the report presented the total mercury content of 1 kg of standard pikes from the 1500 lakes, indicating that mercury content levels of pikes in Sweden is higher than the neighboring countries. According to estimates, the mercury content of lake fish in more than 10000 lakes of Sweden exceeded the WHO standard. The data from 1965 to 2011 not only showed that the mercury and methylmercury content of fish in rivers and lakes had been maintained at a high level in pike, but also revealed that the mercury content levels of fish rose，kept steady, or reduced in some lakes. The report also illustrated the monitoring of mercury and methylmercury levels in fish body over the years in Sweden. The comparison of the mercury levels in fish body and human hair disclosed the health risk of mercury to fish-eating human populations. Therefore, a long-term monitoring of the mercury levels in fish body and human body is needed. The report suggested strengthening the security restrictions on the consumption of fish products in the future and enhancing the exchanges and collaboration in the mercury research in all regions.

At the end of her presentation, WU Pianpian overviewed the present research in her tutor Kevin H. Bishop’s group and SLU, hoping the scholars between China and Sweden promote more opportunities for in-depth and comprehensive collaborative research on mercury which contaminates the environment. Finally, Prof. FENG Xinbin and WU Pianpian discussed about the collaboration in detail.

WU Pianpian is an assistant in Kevin H. Bishop’s research group at SLU. Kevin H. Bishop is a Professor at both SLU and Uppsala University, engaging in the research of the impacts of human activities on the environment, especially forests and aquatic ecosystem, for more than 20 years. He has carried out a lot of research about the deforestation effects on the migration and transformation of mercury, the mercury cycling in wetland system, the mercury pollution of fish in lakes in Sweden, and the determination of surface and atmospheric mercury exchange flux by Relaxed Eddy Accumulation. Kevin H. Bishop has published more than 160 peer-reviewed papers which have been cited over 2700 times. 

(By LANG Xiaofang at SKLEG)