Objective To establish a method for rapid determination of total mercury in rural environmental soil sample by DMA-80 direct mercury analyzer. Methods After air drying,the soil samples were crushed and ground,passed through a 100 mesh (aperture 0.149 mm) nylon sieve,weighed and placed in a quartz sample boat.After drying,decomposition,catalysis and mercury homogenization and enrichment,the generated mercury vapor was introduced into the optical cell by oxygen,detected at the wavelength of 253.7 nm,and quantified by standard curve method according to Lambert Beer law.At the same time,atomic fluorescence spectrometry was used for parallel determination. Results When DMA-80 direct mercury analyzer was used for rapid determination,the drying temperature was 300 ℃,the decomposition temperature was 650 ℃,and the injection volume was 0.1000 g,accurate analysis results could be obtained.Under the best experimental conditions,the soil reference materials were determined,and the measured values were consistent with the standard values.The relative standard deviations of the measured values were 2.53% and 1.13%,respectively.The linear range of the method was 0~30 ng and 0~600 ng,the linear correlation coefficients were 0.999 1 and 0.999 7,the detection limit was 0.1080 ng / g,and the recovery rate of spiked standard was 93.6%~115.8%.The contents of mercury in 10 soil samples were determined by DMA-80 direct mercury analyzer and atomic fluorescence spectrometry,respectively.The results showed that there was no statistical difference between the two methods (W⁺=36,the rejection domain was {W⁺≤ 8} u {W⁺≥ 47}). Conclusion The method is stable,reliable,simple,efficient,accurate and repeatable,and can be used for the determination of total mercury in rural environmental soil.