TABLE 1.

Characteristics of the soils used in this study

Characteristic	Value at a soil depth (cm) of:
	35-55	80-100
Total Hg (mean no. of μg/g soil ± SEM)	7.6 ± 1.0	1.0 ± 0.2
Bioavailable Hg (mean no. of ng/g soil ± SEM)	0.8 ± 0.4	BDa
Culturability, unfiltered (%)b	0.03	0.006
Culturability, 1.0-μm filtrate (%)b	0.08	0.02
Mercury resistance (%)c	2.9	2.3

^aBD, below the detection limit of 0.2 ng Hg/g soil.

^bCalculated as CFU/AODC.

^cCalculated as CFU-Hg^r/CFU.