[Mercury in the country's Bay Bolete (Xerocomus badius) mushrooms]

Total mercury content have been determined in fruiting bodies of Bay Bolete and its underlying soil substrate collected from three spatially distant sites of the country--outskirts of the Mojusz village (Sierakowice Commune, Pomorskie Voivodeship), at the forest inspectorate Turek (Wielkopolskie Voiv.) and near the Lipie village at the Starachowickie forests (Swietokrzyskie Voiv.). Bay Bolete showed small mercury content, i.e. in caps on the average were 0.33 +/- 0.16 (Mojusz), 0.05 +/- 0.03 (Turek) and 0.12 +/- 0.04 microg/g dry weight (Lipie), and in stipes were 0.23 +/- 0.12 (Mojusz), 0.03 +/- 0.02 (Turek) and 0.08 +/- 0.02 (Lipie) microg/g dw. In addition, forest soil at the sites surveyed remained only slightly contaminated with mercury. Surface soil layer (0-10 cm) at the Mojusz, Lipie and Turek sites on the average contained mercury at concentration of 0.11 +/- 0.09, 0.14 +/- 0.05 and 0.05 +/- 0.01 microg/g dw, and median values were 0.053, 0.15 and 0,05 microg/g ms, respectively. Soil at the Lasów Starachowickie forests remained somehow more contaminated with mercury when compared to two other sites surveyed (p < 0.05). The fruiting bodies of Bay Bolete from the area of the Sierakowice Commune characterized were by early four-fold greater value of bioconcentration factor (BCF) of mercury when compared to these from the forest inspectorate Turek or the Starachowickie forests. Variances observed probably explained could be due to different mercury bioavailability to Bay Bolete at the sites surveyed. Enhanced mercury bioavailability highly influenced this element content of Bay Bolete at the Mojusz (Sierakowice Commune) site.