Sediment profile characterisation at contaminated and reference locations in the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica

Sediment profiles for pH, Eh, 28 elements, water and organic content are presented here for human impacted and reference locations in the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica. Variations in element concentrations are observed with increasing depth, especially at Brown Bay where the impact of past human...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Marine Pollution Bulletin
Main Authors: Palmer, AS, Snape, I, Townsend, AT, Stark, JS, Samson, C, Riddle, MJ
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd 2010
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2010.04.013
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20488497
http://ecite.utas.edu.au/66780
Description
Summary:Sediment profiles for pH, Eh, 28 elements, water and organic content are presented here for human impacted and reference locations in the Windmill Islands, East Antarctica. Variations in element concentrations are observed with increasing depth, especially at Brown Bay where the impact of past human activities is most pronounced in the top 10 cm. Spatial differences were observed between sediment profiles at reference and impacted locations and were largely explained by Pb variability in the top 5 cm. Median element concentrations from surface, middle and bottom regions of the sediment profile were compared to composite sample medians (no depth stratigraphy) for 11 elements at OBrien Bay (reference) and Brown Bay (impacted). Pronounced differences were observed for Brown Bay, particularly surface and middle sections, implying that composite samples dilute the near surface anthropogenic signal by mixing with deeper uncontaminated sediment