Determining the availability of sediment-bound trace metals to aquatic deposit-feeding animals

Trace-metal adsorption characteristics of estuarine particulate matter: evaluation of contributions of iron/manganese oxide and organic surface coatings

“…In all cases extraction methods are utilized to operationally define a chemically attackable portion of the particulate matrix. It must be recognized, however, that extraction procedures suffer from a lack of chemical specificity (27,28). In the study described here, trace-metal adsorption has been employed as an analytical tool to aid in the evaluation of changes in particulate surface properties.…”

Notes. Availability of elements of environmental importance in incinerated sludge ash

“…For example, for plants, elemental availability depends on prevailing soil conditions and on the element in question; elemental uptake is species dependent, and the concentrations will vary within the plant and as a function of the stage of growth (7). Nevertheless, chemical extraction procedures, though they may not be perfectly selective, can provide valuable information on the mobility and availability of elements in soils, sediments, and sludges to a variety of animals and plants (7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13).…”

Model of trace-metal partitioning in marine sediments

“…Much current data on metal partitioning are based on empirical analytical methods in which metals are selectively extracted from environmental samples (11)(12)(13)(14)(15). Although these extraction methods have given some valuable insight, they are often plagued with difficulties that raise serious questions as to their reliability (16,17).…”