An 87-year sedimentary record of mercury contamination in the Old Yellow River Estuary of China

Meng Ge; Guijian Liu; Yuan Liu; Zijiao Yuan; Houqi Liu

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.07.008

An 87-year sedimentary record of mercury contamination in the Old Yellow River Estuary of China

Mar Pollut Bull. 2018 Oct:135:47-54. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.07.008. Epub 2018 Jul 5.

Authors

Meng Ge¹, Guijian Liu², Yuan Liu³, Zijiao Yuan³, Houqi Liu³

Affiliations

¹ CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710075, China; University of Science and Technology of China-City University of Hong Kong Joint Advanced Research Centre, Suzhou, Jiangsu, 215123, China.
² CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China; State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, The Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, Shaanxi 710075, China. Electronic address: lgj@ustc.edu.cn.
³ CAS Key Laboratory of Crust-Mantle Materials and Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.

PMID: 30301061
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2018.07.008

Abstract

A sediment core, spanning from the year 1925 ± 3.03 to 2012, was collected for analyzing historical distribution of mercury (Hg) in the Old Yellow River Estuary (OYRE), China. The Hg concentrations in the sediment core ranged from 14 to 351 ng g^-1, with the high values occurred in the middle layers (1960-1996), which may be resulted from intensive human activities during this period, such as oil exploitation and booming of petrochemical industry, salt chemical industry and chlor-alkali plants. A significant positive correlation was found between THg and loss on ignition (LOI). The main fraction of Hg existed in residual part while the fraction that was easy to leach out from sediments accounted for only a small portion according to the results of BCR sequential extraction procedure. Multiple ecological risks indices and guidelines of Hg indicated that the sedimentary record presented an "intermediate state" for Hg contamination in the OYRE.

Keywords: Historical distribution; Mercury; Old Yellow River Estuary; Risk assessment; Sediment core.

MeSH terms

Biological Availability
Chemical Fractionation
China
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Estuaries
Geologic Sediments / analysis*
Mercury / analysis*
Mercury / pharmacokinetics
Rivers
Water Pollutants, Chemical / analysis*
Water Pollutants, Chemical / pharmacokinetics

Substances

Water Pollutants, Chemical
Mercury