Hydro-climatic drivers of land-based organic and inorganic particulate micropollutant fluxes: The regime of the largest river water inflow of the Mediterranean Sea

Delile, Hugo; Masson, Matthieu; Miège, Cécile; Coz, Jérôme Le; Poulier, Gaëlle; Bescond, C. Le; Radakovitch, Olivier; Coquery, Marina

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2020.116067

Cited by 21 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 73 publications

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“…The Rhône River is one of Europe's major rivers and the biggest sediment input to the Mediterranean Sea, with an inter-annual mean of 324 t.km -2 .year -1 for the 1994-1995 period (Launay, 2014;UNEP/MAP, 2003). Its watershed covers an area of 95,600 km² and a wide diversity of geological and climatic conditions (Zebracki et al, 2015;Delile et al, 2020). Since 2010, concentrations and fluxes of SPM and associated contaminants of the Rhône River and its tributaries are monitored and managed under the Rhône Sediment Observatory (OSR) program.…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Given the methodological limitations to ensuring tracer conservatism, here we set out to: (1) investigate the relevance of using the non-reactive fraction of metals in fingerprinting approaches applied on a sediment core, and (2) assess the historical contributions of SPM inputs in a sediment core collected on the Upper Rhône River, downstream of three major tributaries, using the total and non-reactive fractions. For that purpose, we focussed on historical SPM inputs in the Rhône River basin, which is one of the largest watersheds and the main contributor of SPM to the Mediterranean Sea (Launay, 2014;Zebracki et al, 2015;Delile et al, 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Relevance of using the non-reactive geochemical signature in sediment core to estimate historical tributary contributions

Bégorre

Dabrin

Morereau

et al. 2021

Journal of Environmental Management

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Relevance of using the non-reactive geochemical signature in sediment core to estimate historical tributary contributions

Bégorre

Dabrin

Morereau

et al. 2021

Journal of Environmental Management

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“…In return, these anthropogenic activities have released land‐based organic and inorganic micropollutants into nearby rivers, which then carried pollutants downstream to coastal plains (Meybeck, 2003; Schwarzenbach et al, 2006). As a result, rivers ensure source‐to‐sink transport of sediment‐bound micropollutants (Delile et al, 2020; Gioia et al, 2011; Gómez‐Gutiérrez et al, 2006; Liu et al, 2009; Meybeck & Helmer, 1989; Wang et al, 2007). For these reasons, large river basin outlets can be seen as integrators of multiple anthropogenic pressures in watersheds, and thus as a proxy for assessing the global distribution of chemical contamination of upstream freshwaters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Legacy‐micropollutant contamination levels in major river basins based on findings from the Rhône Sediment Observatory

Delile

Dendievel

Yari

et al. 2022

Hydrological Processes

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For more than half a century, chemical contamination has progressively spread to all the large river basins. Large river outlets integrate multiple anthropogenic pressures in watersheds, making them the largest source of sediment‐bound contaminants to continental shelf areas. However, comparing particulate micropollutant contaminations between the large river basins is a challenging task, especially due to the scarcity of long‐term river monitoring programs. Here we address this issue, with a focus on legacy particulate micropollutants (polychlorobiphenyls [PCBi], polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons [PAHs] and trace metal elements [TME]) yields. For this purpose, we employed a bottom‐up multiscale approach to chemical contamination in river basins that takes micropollutant yields measured in the Rhône River sub‐basins (France) as a benchmark of other large river basins. Data on the Rhône River basin came from a unique 10‐year‐long monitoring program within the Rhône Sediment Observatory (OSR), and were compared to data gathered on 18 major worldwide river outlets. The Rhône River basin is far cleaner now than a few decades ago, likely due to environmental regulations. At a wider spatial scale, our results depict an overall contamination gradient splitting the most heavily contaminated river basins, located in developing and industrializing low‐to‐middle‐income countries, from the least contaminated rivers located in developed high‐income countries. We argue that chemical contamination levels of large river basins depend on their stage of economic development.

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“…In fact, the annual SPM flux near the outlet strongly varies due to distinct hydrological regimes in the basin, including glacial, nival, pluvial and Mediterranean components (Pont et al, 2002). Between 1.4 and 18.0 Mt of sediment transit to the Mediterranean Sea each year (Poulier et al, 2019), while the mean inter-annual monthly SPM flux is characterized by a trimodal distribution over the year with maxima in November, January, and May-June (Delile et al, 2020). The Rhône channel is widely artificial with 21 hydroelectric dams, 5 nuclear power plants and 2 big cities with over 500 000 in-habitants (Geneva in Switzerland and Lyon in France).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Rhône watershed covers about a 5th of the surface of metropolitan France, which implies the transport of eroded material from a wide variety of land uses. Therefore, anthropic contamination of the Rhône River by hydrophobic organic contaminants such as polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), trace metal elements (TME) and radionuclides has been observed for many years (Radakovitch et al, 2008;Mourier et al, 2014;Delile et al, 2020;Eyrolle et al, 2020). For these substances, SPM transport represents the main driver of contaminants from rivers to coastal areas, leading to an alteration of biogeochemical cycles and water quality (Horowitz, 2009).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Concentrations and fluxes of suspended particulate matter and associated contaminants in the Rhône River from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea

Lepage

Gruat

Thollet

et al. 2022

Earth Syst. Sci. Data

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Abstract. The Rhône River is among the main rivers of western Europe and the biggest by freshwater discharge and sediment delivery to the Mediterranean Sea. Its catchment is characterized by distinct hydrological regimes that may produce annual sediment deliveries ranging from 1.4 to 18.0 Mt yr−1. Its course meets numerous dams, hydro and nuclear power plants as well as agricultural, urban and industrial areas. Moreover, with the climatic crisis we are currently facing, it is proven that the occurrence and the intensity of extreme events (floods or droughts) will increase. Therefore, it is crucial to monitor the concentrations and fluxes of suspended particulate matter (SPM) and associated contaminants to study the current trends and their evolution. In the Rhône River (from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea), a monitoring network of 15 stations (3 on the Rhône River and 12 on tributaries) has been set up in the past decade by the Rhône Sediment Observatory (OSR) to investigate the concentrations and the fluxes of SPM and associated contaminants as well as their sources. The main purpose of the OSR is to assess the long-term trend of the main contaminant concentrations and fluxes, and to understand their behavior during extreme events, such as floods or dam flushing operations. The dataset presented in this paper contains the concentrations and fluxes of SPM as well as the concentrations and fluxes of several particle-bound contaminants of concern, e.g., polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), trace metal elements (TME) and radionuclides, the particle size distribution and the particulate organic carbon of SPM. Sediment traps or continuous flow centrifuges were used to collect sufficient amount of SPM in order to conduct the measurements, and data completion was applied to reconstruct missing values. This observatory is on-going since 2011 and the database is regularly updated. All the data are made publicly available in French and English through the BDOH OSR database at https://doi.org/10.15454/RJCQZ7 (Lepage et al., 2021).

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Hydro-climatic drivers of land-based organic and inorganic particulate micropollutant fluxes: The regime of the largest river water inflow of the Mediterranean Sea

Cited by 21 publications

References 73 publications

Relevance of using the non-reactive geochemical signature in sediment core to estimate historical tributary contributions

Relevance of using the non-reactive geochemical signature in sediment core to estimate historical tributary contributions

Legacy‐micropollutant contamination levels in major river basins based on findings from the Rhône Sediment Observatory

Concentrations and fluxes of suspended particulate matter and associated contaminants in the Rhône River from Lake Geneva to the Mediterranean Sea

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