Metal(loid)s in superficial sediments from coral reefs of French Polynesia

Abstract

French Polynesia exhibit a wide diversity of islands and coral-reef habitats, from urbanized high islands to remote atolls. Here, we present a geographically extensive baseline survey that examine the levels of nine metals (Ag, Cd, Co, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn) and one metalloid (As) in superficial sediments from 28 sites spread over three islands of French Polynesia. We used Principal Component Analysis, Pearson's correlation, hierarchical cluster analysis and generalized linear mixed-effect models on Pollution Load Index to investigate site contamination and metal(loid) associations. At most sites, metal(loid) levels below commonly applied sediment quality guidelines. However, a few sites located near farming activities, river discharges and urbanized areas showed contamination levels above these guidelines. This study provides critical baseline values for metal(loid) contaminants in this region and in coral-reef areas in general, and spur decreased discharge of metal(loid) contaminants in the anthropogenised areas of French Polynesia.

Metal pollution in sediments and bivalves in Marovo Lagoon, Solomon Islands

“…Contamination of coastal environments by heavy metals is a major worldwide concern. Besides Australia and New Zealand there have been studies on heavy metal contamination in marine sediments in the pacific island countries such as Fiji (Collen et al, 2011;Denton et al, 2001;Morrison et al, 2001;Maata and Singh, 2008;Chand et al, 2011;Pratap et al, 2020), Solomon Islands (Naidu et al, 1991), Guam (Denton et al, 2006;Denton et al, 1997), Samoa (Imo et al, 2014), Tonga (Morrison and Brown, 2003), French Polynesia (Besson et al, 2020) and Tahiti (Besson et al, 2020). Some of these studies conducted in the pacific island countries established a baseline survey (Besson et al, 2020;Morrison & Morrison and Brown, 2003;Naidu et al, 1991).…”

“…Besides Australia and New Zealand there have been studies on heavy metal contamination in marine sediments in the pacific island countries such as Fiji (Collen et al, 2011;Denton et al, 2001;Morrison et al, 2001;Maata and Singh, 2008;Chand et al, 2011;Pratap et al, 2020), Solomon Islands (Naidu et al, 1991), Guam (Denton et al, 2006;Denton et al, 1997), Samoa (Imo et al, 2014), Tonga (Morrison and Brown, 2003), French Polynesia (Besson et al, 2020) and Tahiti (Besson et al, 2020). Some of these studies conducted in the pacific island countries established a baseline survey (Besson et al, 2020;Morrison & Morrison and Brown, 2003;Naidu et al, 1991). Most of the studies conducted in the South Pacific region engaged in spatial scale monitoring which showed enrichment of heavy metals due to anthropogenic activities around the local coastal marine environment (Denton et al, 2005;Collen et al, 2011;Pratap et al, 2020;Denton et al, 2006;Denton et al, 2007;Imo et al, 2014;Maata and Singh, 2008;Morrison et al, 2001) and suggested regular monitoring (Chand et al, 2011;Pratap et al, 2020;Denton et al, 2006;Imo et al, 2014).…”