Abstract
Zn, Cu, Cr and Pb concentrations of the sediment collected from three tidal flat sites of Yangtze estuary were investigated in October 2003. Results showed that the average concentrations of heavy metals in the sediments were two to three times to the environment background values of Yangtze estuary tidal flat sediment. The heavy metal concentrations in the sediments near the Bailonggang (BLG) and Laogang (LG) sewage outfalls were obviously higher than those of Chaoyang (CY) tidal flat where there are no sewage outfalls near the coast. And the concentrations of heavy metals in the surface sediments of LG tidal flat decreased with the increasing of the distance to the sewage outfalls. The heavy metal concentration profile in the sediment core changed with the depth, and generally reached maximum values at the depth of plant roots. The assessment results showed that the sediments of LG, BLG and CY tidal flat had been polluted by heavy metals in different level. The pollution degree of heavy metals in the sediments was as follows: Zn > Cu > Pb > Cr. The potential ecological risks of the four heavy metals in three tidal flat sites sediment were all at a middle level, and Cu and Pb made the main contributions. The adverse ecological effects caused by the four heavy metals did not occur frequently.
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Notes
Lack of data point between 18 and 20 cm in core sediments of middle tidal flat of LG and CY is because only 18 cm long sediment cores was obtained by using PVC pipes. Concentrations of Cr in the core sediments of the low tidal flat of CY were absent due to the failure in the laboratory analysis.
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Acknowledgments
This work was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40730526, 40701164), the Science and Technology Department of Shanghai (Grant No. 07DZ12037). The authors also would like to thank the anonymous reviewers aided in the development and improvement of this paper.
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Deng, HG., Zhang, J., Wang, DQ. et al. Heavy metal pollution and assessment of the tidal flat sediments near the coastal sewage outfalls of shanghai, China. Environ Earth Sci 60, 57–63 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-009-0169-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-009-0169-3