Approaching mercury distribution in burial environment using PLS‑R modelling Álvarez Fernández, Noemí Martínez Cortizas, Antonio García López, Zaira López Costas, Olalla Present research was funded by Estudo de esqueletos humanos e de secuencias edafosedimentarias do xacemento de A Lanzada (2017-CP035) funded by Deputación Provincial de Pontevedra. It was supported by the project Fomentar a actividade investigadora do persoal investigador finalista nas convocatorias de axudas da ERC do H2020 by GAIN (2021-CP052). We thank Deputación de Pontevedra, Museum of Pontevedra and the Dirección Xeral de Patrimonio da Xunta de Galicia for providing access to the archaeological soil samples. Special thanks go to the director or archaeological campaign Rafael Rodríguez Martinez for his support in all studies related to A Lanzada. Thanks to the Ecoloxicoloxía e Ecofisioloxía Vexetal research group and Jesús Aboal as well as to RIAIDT for providing access to equipment facilities. This project is funded by Grupos de Referencia Competitiva (ED431C 2021/32) by Xunta de Galicia. Authors would like to thank the use of RIAIDT-USC analytical facilities. OLC is funded by JIN project (PID2019-111683RJ-I00) Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion and Beca Leonardo a Investigadores y Creadores Culturales 2020 (2020-PO048) de la Fundación BBVA. NAF and ZGL are funded by the project Fomentar a actividade investigadora do persoal investigador finalista nas convocatorias de axudas da ERC do H2020 by GAIN (2021-CP052). Mercury environmental cycle and toxicology have been widely researched. Given the long history of mercury pollution, researching mercury trends in the past can help to understand its behaviour in the present. Archaeological skeletons have been found to be useful sources of information regarding mercury loads in the past. In our study we applied a soil multi-sampling approach in two burials dated to the 5th to 6th centuries AD. PLRS modelling was used to elucidate the factors controlling mercury distribution. The model explains 72% of mercury variance and suggests that mercury accumulation in the burial soils is the result of complex interactions. The decomposition of the bodies not only was the primary source of mercury to the soil but also responsible for the pedogenetic transformation of the sediments and the formation of soil components with the ability to retain mercury. The amount of soft tissues and bone mass also resulted in differences between burials, indicating that the skeletons were a primary/secondary source of mercury to the soil (i.e. temporary sink). Within burial variability seems to depend on the proximity of the soil to the thoracic area, where the main mercury target organs were located. We also conclude that, in coarse textured soils, as the ones studied in this investigation, the finer fraction (i.e. silt + clay) should be analysed, as it is the most reactive and the one with the higher potential to provide information on metal cycling and incipient soil processes. Finally, our study stresses the need to characterise the burial soil environment in order to fully understand the role of the interactions between soil and skeleton in mercury cycling in burial contexts. 2021-11-24T12:02:27Z 2021-11-24T12:02:27Z 2021-10-27 info:eu-repo/semantics/article Álvarez-Fernández, N., Martínez Cortizas, A., García-López, Z. et al. Approaching mercury distribution in burial environment using PLS-R modelling. Sci Rep 11, 21231 (2021). [https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-00768-8] http://hdl.handle.net/10481/71725 10.1038/s41598-021-00768-8 eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/es/ info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess Atribución 3.0 España Nature Research