[Mercury in mushrooms and underlying substrate from the area of Polanowice in the county of Gubin, district of Zielona G'ora].

The total mercury concentration was determined in caps and stalks of 16 species of higher mushrooms and in fall 1994 at the forested area near village of Polanowice on the western border of Poland in county of Gubin, District of Zielona Góra. The method of measurement was cold-vapour atomic absorption spectrometry after wet digestion of the samples with concentrated nitric acid in whole glass apparatus consisting of round bottom flask, partial condenser and a water cooler. Totally 254 fruiting bodies and subsequent soil samples were collected (caps and stalks were analysed separately). The bioconcentration factor (BCF) values of total mercury were highs for Macrolepiota procera, Orestades marasimus and Boletus edulis, and ranged between 140-160 in caps, and between 70-100 stalks, on a average. These three mushroom species also showed highest concentration of mercury, and the mean values ranged from 3000 to 5300 micrograms/kg dry wt in caps, and from 1500 to 3200 micrograms/kg in stalks. Paxillus involutus excluded mercury and the BCF values for the metal in caps and stalks of this species were below1. The BCF values of mercury for the other species investigated were between 3.7 and 34 in caps, and 2.0 and 17 in stalks. Only Amanita muscaria (caps and stalks) and Russula rosea (stalks) showed a slight, however statistically not significant, bioindicating potency for increasing mercury concentration in soil. Cortinarius praestans showed statistically significant negative logarithmic corelationship between mercury concentration in caps (r = -0.49; p < 0.05) as well as in stalks (r = -0.57; p < 0.01, and underlying soil.