Zirconium, Hafnium and Tellurium Signatures in Wild Mushrooms from Leicester and Leicestershire, England

Zirconium (Zr), hafnium (Hf) and tellurium (Te) are environmentally and technologically relevant elements whose occurrence in wild macrofungi remains insufficiently characterised. This study investigated their concentrations, distribution and multielement relationships in wild mushroom fruiting bodies collected from urban and peri-urban green spaces in Leicester and Leicestershire, England, together with contextual topsoil geochemistry. Acid-recoverable concentrations were determined through inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in 121 fruiting-body-level mushroom units and 26 independent site-level composite topsoils. Zr and Hf were detected above their respective working limits of detection in all mushroom units and topsoil composites, whereas Te was detected in 118/121 mushroom units but remained below the working limit of detection in all topsoil composites. Median mushroom concentrations were 170 ng g^-1 dry weight for Zr, 270 ng g^-1 for Hf and 110 ng g^-1 for Te. Comparatively elevated concentrations were observed in Panaeolina foenisecii collected from Abbey and Braunstone Parks and in Mycena citrinomarginata from Victoria Park, while Agaricus bitorquis from St Augustine Road showed lower and less variable concentrations. Park-level concentrations were strongly correlated across the three elements (Spearman's ρ = 0.819-0.885; all BH-adjusted q < 0.001), and the first principal component accounted for 93.4% of the total variance, consistent with the strong inter-element correlations. However, contextual soil-mushroom comparisons for Zr and Hf were inconclusive because of limited site overlap and spatial mismatch, and no direct inference regarding environmental source or soil-to-mushroom transfer was supported. These findings establish an exploratory baseline for Zr, Hf and Te in wild mushrooms and demonstrate the value of taxon- and site-resolved fungal biomonitoring for under-characterised environmental elements.