Source identification, geochemical normalization and influence factors of heavy metals in Yangtze River Estuary...

Sediment samples, including 40 surface samples and 12 sediment cores, were collected from 52 stations of the Yangtze River Estuary (YRE) in 2015 and 2016. The 95% linear prediction intervals (LPI) and principal components analysis (PCA), were conducted to evaluate the metal sources and grain-size effect (GSE). The in situ physico-chemical properties of pH, Eh, DO, salinity, temperature and turbidity were combined to elucidate the relationships between environmental factors and the fate of heavy metals in the river-estuary-shelf system. This study indicates a decreasing trend of metals in sediments from the estuary towards the adjacent shelf and the river channel and that Zn, Cu and Cr are mainly derived from natural processes throughout the catchment, whereas Pb appears to have anthropogenic inputs via atmospheric deposition. Furthermore, considering the best fit regression lines between the concentrations of Al and heavy metals as well as the deficiencies of the conventional C_elements/C_Al method, we introduce an approach (Al-SN: Al-scope normalization) that can eliminate the GSE on heavy metals and be applied to other estuaries. After Al-scope normalization, the relatively constant levels of Zn, Cu and Cr that remain in sediments from the river channel to the estuary and shelf confirmed that the variation of grain size in sediments almost entirely explained the distribution patterns of sediment toxicity in the YRE, while the enrichment of Pb in estuarine sediments could be attributed to its chemical species and physico-chemical properties. The results further suggest that the relationship between grain size and spatial behavior of sediment pollutants should be given priority over the contamination assessment and provenance discrimination in estuarine or similar environments with complex sediment compositions.