Methods of Assessment of Metal Contamination in Bottom Sediments (Case Study: Straszyn Lake, Poland)

Abstract

The concentrations of six metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Cr, and Cd) were investigated in bottom sediments of Straszyn Lake (North Poland). This study was designed to determine a total content of metals and to assess their mobility and bioavailability. The sequential extraction was used to fractionate metals into five fractions: exchangeable, bound to carbonates, bound to Fe–Mn oxides, bound to organic matter, and residual. The evaluation of sediments contamination degree by metals was performed by applying the geochemical quality guidelines, the pollution load index, and the geo-accumulation index (Igeo). The assessment based on these methods demonstrated that sediments were polluted with Cr and the sediments quality guidelines confirmed these results. Moreover, the average concentrations of Cu, Ni, and Cr were respectively 3.4, 3.9, and 21.2 times higher than their background values. According to ecological risk index and risk assessment code Cd was the most important factor affecting the ecological environment of the Straszyn Lake. The metal speciation analysis demonstrated that the mean percentage of metals in the exchangeable and carbonate fractions decreased in the following order: Cd (59.1%) > Zn (19.8%) = Ni (19.8%) > Pb (16.6%) > Cu (3.3%) > Cr (2.7%). The very strong correlation calculated between all the metals indicated their common origin.

Assessment of the Chemical State of Bottom Sediments in the Eutrophied Dam Reservoir in Poland

“…The C:N ratio is higher (greater than 20) in macrophytic and cellulose-rich terrestrial organic matter and lower (between 4 and 10) in algae and phytoplankton [27]. Similar results (from 5.36 up to 10.41) were obtained by Small et al [26] who examined this parameter in two dam reservoirs in Poland (Zemborzycki and Brody Iłżeckie Reservoirs).…”

“…Low concentrations of sedimentary organic carbon in the southern part of the reservoir may be ascribed then to the lower depth and higher water dynamics than other areas. Weaker accumulation of organic matter in the shallow water zone and in the zone of higher water dynamics were confirmed by a number of authors [14,20,22,25,27,36].…”

“…Geochemical criteria developed by the Polish Geological Institute relate to the classification of bottom sediment purity based on the content of selected trace elements [27]. As part of the geochemical criteria, for the purposes of monitoring, a classification has been developed that extracts IV degrees of sediment pollution.…”

Mineralogy and heavy metal assessment of the Pietra del Pertusillo reservoir sediments (Southern Italy)

“…It has been observed that to define more accurately the quality of sediments potentially affected by heavy metals and pollutants, a correct option could be an intensive comparison of applied sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) (Burton 2018;Birch 2018;Liu et al 2019;Jones et al 2019). Comparative evaluations of different SQGs for contaminants, in order to obtain an environmental quality and risk assessment of internal waters, has been intensively provided in recent years (Ali et al 2016;Baran et al 2016;Bhateria and Jain 2016;Gopal et al 2017;Strady et al 2017;Xu et al 2017;Shyleshchandran et al 2018;Zhao et al 2018;Aung et al 2019;Kulbat and Sokołowska 2019;Christophoridis et al 2020). It has to be noted that SQGs for the assessment of sediment quality are very different across the different countries.…”

“…Freshwater reservoirs role great importance for investigating pollution as they are generally located close to the urban and industrial sources of pollution, where contamination issues are most likely to arise (Ammar et al 2015; Baran et al 2016). The reservoir sediments can be sensitive indicators for monitoring contaminants in aquatic environments (Liu et al 2018;Aung et al 2019;Kulbat and Sokołowska 2019;Zhuang et al 2019), acting as sinks for different pollutants. In particular, clay fraction is mainly enriched of heavy metals, especially in highly polluted sediments (Uddin 2017;Jones et al 2019).…”