Speciation of mercury compounds in environmental and biological samples requires different techniques and different approaches. This speciation is mandatory to explain the toxicity, the reactivity and the bioavailability of mercury. It is dominated by inorganic mercury species Hg(II) and Hg(0), and the organic mercury species CH
3Hg and (CH
3)
2Hg. In this paper, some aspects of mercury speciation are presented in terms of:
- mercury reactivity (Hg(II) complexation and reduction),
- mercury species distribution in the main compartments of the environment