Correlation between physical and chemical characteristics of soils and their natural mercury content is important for identifying the parameters that most influence Hg retention in these soils and its distribution in different environmental compartments. The aim of this study was to quantify the Hg content of tropical soils without anthropogenic influence and correlate it with physical and chemical soil characteristics. The present study is relevant because most research focuses on contaminated soils and, in the case of tropical soils, research is even more limited. Therefore, different soils from natural forests of southeastern Brazil were characterized and the results of chemical and physical characterization were correlated with soil Hg content. Mercury content was determined through the direct Hg analyzer DMA-80. Mercury concentrations in soils were between 0 and 215 μg kg-1 and the average was 81 µg kg-1. Soil Hg content correlated mainly with the clay content and soil pH. There was no correlation between Hg content and C content. For soils with higher levels of Hg and the same texture, cation exchange capacity becomes an important variable.
heavy metal; tropical soils; pH; texture
