To contribute to establishing a historical baseline for future evaluations of the environmental quality of the Ría de Vigo (NW Spain), we report metal contents determined in eight gravity cores obtained at representative locations in 1990 - before the installation of any wastewater treatment plants - and in fractions thereof that were obtained by the BCR sequential extraction method. The results suggest that early diagenesis had been influenced by both hydrodynamic conditions and organic matter input (the latter especially in areas devoted to mariculture), and that anthropogenic inputs had also affected the concentrations and between-fraction distribution of Cu, Pb, Zn and other metals in surficial sediments.
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