Sediment composition and normalisation procedures: an example from a QUASH project sediment exercise

Miserocchi, Stefano; Bellucci, Luca Giorgio; Marcaccio, Marco; Matteucci, Gabriele; Landuzzi, V.; Quarantotto, G; Rovatti, G.

doi:10.1039/b002760j

Cited by 7 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…The sediments were dated by lead-210, as reported in Fabbri et al (2001a) and Matteucci et al (2001). All samples were digested with a strong acid mixture (HNO 3 , HF and H 2 O 2 ) in teflon bombs in a microwave oven following Guerzoni et al (1987), modified to optimise the dissolution of organic compounds (Miserocchi et al, 2000). After digestion, Cd and Pb were determined by graphite furnace AAS, Cu and Zn by ICP-AES, and Hg by automatic mercury analyser (US-EPA, 1998).…”

Section: Sampling and Analytical Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent evolution of sedimentary heavy metals in a coastal lagoon contaminated by industrial wastewaters (Pialassa Baiona, Ravenna, Italy)

et al. 2005

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The salt marsh near the discharge channel from the Ravenna petrochemical plant was studied in 1982. The study was repeated in 2000/02, with the aim of detecting present-day levels of trace metals in the sediments and to evaluate if any recovery (i.e., burial) had taken place due to recent "non-contaminated" sedimentation.Cu and Pb showed the same surface levels as in 1982, and sediment profiles measured in the core indicated an homogeneous concentrations in the top 10 cm over the last 30 years. Higher surface concentrations were measured for Zn (up to 800 mg kg -1 dw), peaking in the top 3-4 cm (last 10-15 years). Higher concentrations were also measured for Hg in the surface sediments of the channel, as well as in the core (20-40 mg kg -1 dw), although lower values were measured in recent sediments, as discharge from chloro-alkali plants ceased about 20 years ago. Those Hg values are still two orders of magnitude higher than the sediment quality guidelines of the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) and FDEP (Florida Department of Environmental Protection) (SQGs), ERM (Effect Range Median) and PEL (Probable Effect Level), respectively. Cadmium concentrations were analysed for the first time, and showed a peak in surface layers (1-2.5 mg kg -1 dw), with a progressive decline along the sediment column.Through comparison with pre-industrial values detected in the deep core layers (before 1920), Hg showed the highest enrichment factor (EF) -up to 300 times. Cd and Zn occur in recent sediments at levels 2-10 times higher than background values. In terms of possible adverse effects, Hg poses the highest risk, and Cd and Zn are also, in most cases, above the recommended ERL and ERM.

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Section: Sampling and Analytical Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

Recent evolution of sedimentary heavy metals in a coastal lagoon contaminated by industrial wastewaters (Pialassa Baiona, Ravenna, Italy)

et al. 2005

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“…In the case of pollution by titanium dioxide and bauxite processing factories, or in the case of significant amounts of Al-bearing silicates in the reach of the monitoring area (e.g., feldspars), Al or Fe cannot be used as co-factors, but seems to be a promising alternative proxy for the coarse fraction. [26][27][28] Some more exotic non-anthropogenic elements like Sc, Cs, Rb and Y might then be used instead, but have been applied only in rare cases. [29][30][31] Note also that care should be taken to apply geochemical cofactor normalization in retrospective trend monitoring based on sediment profiles where there is a hint to, but a lack of a full understanding of, post-depositional early-diagenetic processes, which can create important natural enrichments at certain sediment depths.…”

Section: Geochemical Normalizationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…45 An alternative approach to evaluate the quality of a normalizer (a grain-size fraction, compositional co-factor or a linear combination thereof) was exemplified by the second round of the QUASH international laboratory performance assessment project. 13 The new approach, as also recently demonstrated with sediments from Venice Lagoon, 28 is to fractionate samples into subsamples of different grain-size distributions by wet sieving. Both the fine and coarser subsamples (e.g., w63 mm, v63 mm, 20-63 mm, and v20 mm) are then analyzed for the contaminants and co-factors in addition to the whole sample.…”

Section: Quality Assessment Of Normalization 41 Geochemical Criteria ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Normalization procedures for sediment contaminants in spatial and temporal trend monitoring

Kersten

Smedes²

2002

J. Environ. Monitor.

176

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Rational pollution, or the effectiveness of natural attenuation assessments based upon estimating the degree of contamination, critically depends on the basis of a sound normalization to take into account heterogeneous sedimentary environments. By normalizing the measured contaminant concentration patterns for the sediment characteristics, the inherent variability can be reduced and so allow a more meaningful assessment of both the spatial distributions and the temporal trends. A brief overview and guidance in the methodology available for choosing an appropriate site-specific normalization approach is presented. This is followed by general recommendations with respect to the choice of normalizer and the necessary geochemical and statistical quality assurance methods, with support from the results of recent international intercomparison exercises within the QUASH (Quality Assurance of Sample Handling) programme, as well as discussions within the International Commission on the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) working groups. The most important of these recommendations is the use of a two-tiered normalization approach including wet sieving (<63 microm), followed by an additional geochemical co-factor normalization.

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“…Pivot values are regionally dependent. For example, in the Venice lagoon in northern Italy, Al revealed similar concentrations in coarse and fine fractions due to the presence of feldspars in the coarse fraction (Miserocchi et al, 2000). Al values in sediments from Canadian waters are much higher than in sediments of Dutch marine waters (Smedes et al, 1997).…”

Section: Normalization Constantsmentioning

confidence: 99%

4DEMON: Integrating 40 Years of Data on PCB and Metal Contamination in Marine Sediments of the Belgian Part of the North Sea

Bekaert²,

Lagring

et al. 2021

Front. Mar. Sci.

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The assessment of historical data is important to understand long-term changes in the marine environment. Whereas time series analyses based on monitoring data typically span one or two decades, this work aimed to integrate 40 years of monitoring and research data on polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and metals in the Belgian Part of the North Sea (BPNS). Multiple challenges were encountered: sampling locations changed over time, different analytical methods were applied, different grain size fractions were analyzed, appropriate co-factors were not always analyzed, and measurement uncertainties were not always indicated. These issues hampered the use of readily available, highly standardized trend modeling approaches like those proposed by regional sea conventions such as OSPAR, named after the Oslo and Paris conventions.Therefore, we applied alternative approaches, allowing us to include most older historical data that have been obtained during the nineteen seventies and eighties. Our approach included reproducible and quality controlled procedures from data collection up to data assessment. It included spatial clustering, data normalization and parametric linear mixed effect modeling. A Ward hierarchical clustering was applied on recently obtained contaminant data, as the basis for a spatial division of the BPNS into five distinct areas with different contamination profiles. To minimize the risk of normalization errors for the metal data analyses, four normalization approaches were applied and mutually compared: granulometric and nickel (Ni) normalization, next to two hybrid normalization methods combining aluminum (Al) and iron (Fe) normalization. The long-term models revealed decreasing trends for most metals, except zinc (Zn) for which three out of four models showed increasing concentrations in all five zones of the BPNS. Offshore sediments contained the lowest normalized mercury (Hg) and cadmium (Cd) concentrations but high arsenic (As) concentrations. Trend analysis revealed a strong decrease in PCB concentrations in the nineteen eighties and nineties, followed by a slight increase over the last decade. The extended timeframe for contaminant assessment, as applied in this study, is of added value for scientists and policy makers, as the approach allows to detect trends and effects of anthropogenic activities within the marine environment within a broad perspective.

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Sediment composition and normalisation procedures: an example from a QUASH project sediment exercise

Cited by 7 publications

References 10 publications

Recent evolution of sedimentary heavy metals in a coastal lagoon contaminated by industrial wastewaters (Pialassa Baiona, Ravenna, Italy)

Recent evolution of sedimentary heavy metals in a coastal lagoon contaminated by industrial wastewaters (Pialassa Baiona, Ravenna, Italy)

Normalization procedures for sediment contaminants in spatial and temporal trend monitoring

4DEMON: Integrating 40 Years of Data on PCB and Metal Contamination in Marine Sediments of the Belgian Part of the North Sea

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