Monitoring mercury (Hg) species in the hydrosphere is very important due to their impact on environmental and human health and their extremely high bioaccumulation factors (up to 106) in the marine food chain.
In natural waters, Hg concentrations are typically in the low-ng/L range, which makes their reliable determination a major analytical challenge.
Sophisticated detection techniques, such as cold vapor-atomic fluorescence spectrometry can provide the necessary limits of detection (LODs) with reasonable precision but accurate determinations also require robust procedures for sampling and sample storage.