Sediment source fingerprinting: benchmarking recent outputs, remaining challenges and emerging themes

Abstract

Purpose This review of sediment source fingerprinting assesses the current state-of-the-art, remaining challenges and emerging themes. It combines inputs from international scientists either with track records in the approach or with expertise relevant to progressing the science. Methods Web of Science and Google Scholar were used to review published papers spanning the period 2013–2019, inclusive, to confirm publication trends in quantities of papers by study area country and the types of tracers used. The most recent (2018–2019, inclusive) papers were also benchmarked using a methodological decision-tree published in 2017. Scope Areas requiring further research and international consensus on methodological detail are reviewed, and these comprise spatial variability in tracers and corresponding sampling implications for end-members, temporal variability in tracers and sampling implications for end-members and target sediment, tracer conservation and knowledge-based pre-selection, the physico-chemical basis for source discrimination and dissemination of fingerprinting results to stakeholders. Emerging themes are also discussed: novel tracers, concentration-dependence for biomarkers, combining sediment fingerprinting and age-dating, applications to sediment-bound pollutants, incorporation of supportive spatial information to augment discrimination and modelling, aeolian sediment source fingerprinting, integration with process-based models and development of open-access software tools for data processing. Conclusions The popularity of sediment source fingerprinting continues on an upward trend globally, but with this growth comes issues surrounding lack of standardisation and procedural diversity. Nonetheless, the last 2 years have also evidenced growing uptake of critical requirements for robust applications and this review is intended to signpost investigators, both old and new, towards these benchmarks and remaining research challenges for, and emerging options for different applications of, the fingerprinting approach.

The Efficiency of Elemental Geochemistry and Weathering Indices as Tracers in Aeolian Sediment Provenance Fingerprinting

“…These studies did not, however, use an un-mixing model to estimate the contribution of each source on the basis of the ngerprint properties analysed. More recently, as global uptake of the ngerprinting approach has continued to expand, especially in uvial environments [15][16][17] , applications to aeolian sediment and storm sand tracing have also started to emerge [18][19][20] . Here, since applications to aeolian systems are rudimentary, in comparison with those in uvial environments, there remains a need to explore the most reliable and cost-bene t tracers to discriminate and apportion sources.…”

An introduction to advances in sediment science and management

“…This special issue contains papers that review some of these developments (e.g. Collins et al 2020;Haynes et al 2020;Owens 2020), while others provide a perspective on keys aspects and offer recommendations for how the discipline could progress (e.g. Heise et al 2020;Spadaro and Rosenthal 2020;Vercruysse et al 2020).…”

“…Three of these papers (i.e. Collins et al 2020;Haynes et al 2020;Heise et al 2020) provide some developments and perspectives-on sediment source fingerprinting, urban road-deposited sediment, and ecotoxicological testing of sediments and dredged material, respectively-since three of the most widely cited papers on sediment in JSS (i.e. Chapman and Hollert 2006;Taylor and Owens 2009a;Walling 2013).…”

“…Gellis and Mukundan 2013;Smith et al 2015;Laceby et al 2019) and more than 50 papers have been published in JSS on soil and sediment tracing and source fingerprinting research. Collins et al (2020) provide a comprehensive review of the developments made since the key paper in JSS by Walling (2013). Collins et al (2020) identify that while progress continues to be made, there is a need to have consistency and standardization in how such studies are performed.…”

“…Collins et al (2020) provide a comprehensive review of the developments made since the key paper in JSS by Walling (2013). Collins et al (2020) identify that while progress continues to be made, there is a need to have consistency and standardization in how such studies are performed. They also identify key areas requiring further research that will enable the sediment source fingerprinting technique to reach its full potential as a tool for managing problematic sediment issues.…”