Mercury in fruiting bodies of Fly Agaric Amanita muscaria (L.: Fr.) Pers. collected from Poland

Abstract
Total mercury concentrations were determined in the fruiting bodies of Fly Agaric Amanita muscaria (L.: FL) Pers. and underlying soil substrate collected from several sites in Poland in 1993-2000 to evaluate mercury status as contaminant and bioindicating features of this species. The samples were collected from the spatially distant sites such as: Zaborski Landscape Park, Mierzeja Wislana Landscape Park, Wdzydzki Landscape Park, Borecka Forest, Tucholskie Forest, Wielunska Upland, the communities of Gubin, Manowo, Lubiana and Morag. Total mercury content of caps and stalks of Fly agaric varied widely depending on the sites examined. The range of the mean mercury concentrations for all 17 sites was between 96 10 and 1900 1400 ng/g dry wt for the caps and between 6l 32 and 920 760 ng/g dry wt for the stalks, while between 4.4 3.1 and 150 20 ng/g were noted for soil substrate samples from 9 sites examined. Fly agaric independently of the site examined showed relatively good capacity to accumulate total mercury and BCF values varied between 16 10 and 74 15 for the caps and between 11 8 and 42 10 for the stalks. Nevertheless, relatively high bioconcentration potential of mercury by Fly agaric seems to be specific for that species and under soil mercury concentrations noted no bioindication properties of this mushroom could be observed.