Fig. 3: Mercury flux and surficial soil pools (0–5 cm) at the Los Amigos Conservation Concession.

Data are shown in A forested and B deforested areas. The deforested area at Los Amigos represents a clearing for the field station, which makes up a small fraction of total land. Fluxes are shown in arrows and expressed as µg m⁻² yr⁻¹. Pools are shown in circles for the top 0–5 cm of soil and expressed as μg m⁻². Percentages represent the percent of the mercury present as methylmercury in the pool or flux. The average concentration between the dry season (2018 and 2019) and wet season (2018) for total mercury in throughfall, bulk precipitation, and litterfall were used for this upscaled estimate of mercury loading. Methylmercury data are based on the 2018 dry season, the only year that it was measured. For information on pool and flux calculations, see the “Methods”. C Relationship between total mercury concentration in throughfall and leaf area index at the eight plots at Los Amigos Conservation Concession according to an ordinary least square regression. D Relationship between precipitation total mercury concentration and surficial soil mercury total concentration at all five sites in the forested (green circle) and deforested (brown triangle) areas according to an ordinary least square regression (error bars show standard deviation).