Open AccessHeavy metals contamination of the sediments of the south-eastern Baltic Sea: the impact of economic development
Author(s) -
Alexander Krek,
Aleksandr Danchenkov,
Marina Ulyanova,
D. V. Ryabchuk
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
baltica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.242
H-Index - 17
eISSN - 1648-858X
pISSN - 0067-3064
DOI - 10.5200/baltica.2019.1.5
Subject(s) - contamination , environmental science , pollutant , heavy metals , environmental chemistry , baltic sea , atomic absorption spectroscopy , geology , oceanography , chemistry , biology , ecology , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics
The scope of the study was to assess the impact of potential sources of Cu, Zn, Co, Ni, and Cr on bottom sediments of the Russian sector of the south-eastern Baltic Sea. A total of 68 samples were taken and analyzed for grain-size (laser diffraction and sieve method) and heavy metal concentration (atomic absorption spectroscopy method). To avoid the influence of the sorption capacity of the fine-grained sediments to accumulate the pollutants, the normalization of the heavy metal concentration to Fe was applied. The environmental indices (contamination factor and modified degree of contamination) were calculated. The research has shown the contribution of oil platform, pipelines, ports and wastewater treatment facilities on the geochemical composition of bottom sediments. The authors have identified the level of heavy metals contamination of the middle parts of the Curonian and Vistula spits as a result of alongshore transport of pollutants.