Heavy metals in Chukchi Sea sediments as compared to selected circum-arctic shelves

Surficial sediments from 31 stations on the northeastern Chukchi Sea, Alaskan Arctic were analysed by AAS and ICP-AES for Si, Al, Fe, Mn, Cu, Cr, Co, Zn, Ni and V. The metal concentrations are related to the sediment granulometry and show no correlations with organic carbon. Presumably all the heavy metals, except Cr and Co, are either adsorbed on clays and/or coprecipitated with ferrimanganic hydroxide. Cobalt is partitioned in an unknown mineral phase within the sand fraction.

Comparison of the heavy metal concentrations in muds of the Chukchi Sea with those of the high arctic shelves of Russia, East Greenland and the Beaufort Sea shows relatively lower levels of most metals in the Chukchi. Presumably these disparities are related to regional differences in sediment chemistries inherited from natural terrigenous sources rather than to any enhanced pollution in the non-Chukchi areas.

It is suggested that the concentrations and accumulation rates of the heavy metals reported here can serve as reliable baselines to monitor metal pollution in the Chukchi Sea.     

Chemostatic behaviour of major ions and contaminants in a semiarid spring and stream system near Los Alamos,NM, USA

Recent studies have focused on the relationship between solute concentrations and discharge in streams, demonstrating that concentrations can vary little relative to changes in discharge (chemostatic behaviour). Chemostatic behaviour is dependent on catchment characteristics (e.g., lithology, geomorphology, and vegetation) and chemical characteristics of the solute (e.g., availability, reactivity, and mobility). An investigation of 3 springs and a stream near Los Alamos, NM, reveals that springs can behave in a chemostatic fashion as stream systems tend to do. Another unique finding of this study is that the anthropogenic contaminants barium and the high explosive RDX (hexahydro‐1,3,5‐trinitro‐1,3,5‐triazine) can also behave chemostatically. The chemostatic behaviour of a contaminant has important implications for the residence time of contaminants in a system as well as having a major control on contaminant flux and mass transport. Redox (reduction–oxidation) and biogeochemically sensitive analytes (e.g., Fe, SO₄, and NO₃) display a combination of chemostatic and chemodynamic behaviour, showing the influence of temporally variable conditions on stream and spring chemistries.     

New assessment of organic mercury formation in highly polluted sediments in the Lenga estuary,Chile

Anomalously high levels of mercury in sediment in the Lenga estuary, Chile are comparable to the most contaminated sites previously reported elsewhere. Total mercury (Hg_total) concentrations range from 0.5 to 129 mg kg⁻¹ and organic mercury (Hg_org) from 11 to 53 μg kg⁻¹. The highest levels are in areas near the previous wastewater outfall of a chlo-alkali plant. The results show that the proportion of Hg_org/Hg_total in the sediment varies by more than two orders of magnitude (0.02–5.7%) according to the concentration of Hg_total. No correlation between the concentration of Hg_org and Hg_total was found. The lack of correlation does contrast with the findings of other authors in culture media. Our results indicate that even at very high concentrations of Hg_total and organic matter do not influence organic mercury formation in estuary sediments. The disparity in Hg_total and Hg_org concentrations also attests to environmental differences in the formation.     

Summer phytoplankton production and transport along the shelf break in the Bering Sea

A general model is presented for the production and fate of phytoplankton during summer in two regions over the continental shelf of the Bering Sea. We propose that both regions of productivity are supported by nutrients transported into the area with the Bering Slope Current and that the fate of the phytodetritus produced is significantly affected by advection. We hypothesize that one system of primary productivity is initiated at the Bering Sea shelf-break front and continues into the northern Bering Sea as part of the modified Bering Shelf water mass. Phytodetritus produced in this system is transported north through Anadyr and Shpanberg Straits and we estimate that in 1987 it supplied 26% of the daily carbon demand of the benthos in the Chirikov Basin. The second region of primary productivity is located in the northern Bering Sea. Nutrients from the Anadyr Current, the northern branch of the bifurcated Bering Slope Current, support a highly productive phytoplankton bloom throughout the summer. Phytodetritus produced in this surface bloom is probably advected into the southern Chukchi Sea and deposited in the sediments.