title: A study of metal and metalloid contaminant availability in Antarctic marine sediments
creator: Larner, BL
creator: Seen, AJ
creator: Palmer, AS
creator: Snape, I
subject: 259902 Environmental Chemistry (incl. Atmospheric Chemistry)
description: Previous studies of impacted sites near Casey Station, Antarctica, have revealed elevated concentrations of metals and metalloids, particularly Cd, Cu, Fe, Pb, Sn and Zn in marine sediments. However, attempts to understand the availability and mobility of contaminant elements have not provided a true understanding of speciation. The current work shows, for the first time, that sediments in Brown Bay, an embayment adjacent to the Thala Valley waste disposal site, have elevated concentrations of sulfide, well in excess of that required to bind contaminant metals such as Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn. Furthermore, sediment characterisation using the BCR sequential extraction scheme has shown metal partitioning consistent with sulfides being the controlling factor in metal availability, thus explaining the low porewater concentrations of these metals. The speciation of Sn in Brown Bay, however, is still unclear with the BCR sequential extraction scheme partitioning Sn predominantly into the residual fraction despite Sn being readily extracted by dilute HCl.

publisher: Pergamon-Elsevier
date: 2007
type: Article
type: PeerReviewed
format: application/pdf
identifier: http://eprints.utas.edu.au/3961/1/3961.pdf
relation: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chemosphere.2006.11.059
identifier: Larner, BL and Seen, AJ and Palmer, AS and Snape, I (2007) A study of metal and metalloid contaminant availability in Antarctic marine sediments. Chemosphere, 67 (10). pp. 1967-1974. ISSN 0045-6535
relation: http://eprints.utas.edu.au/3961/