Heavy Metals and Organic Pollutants in the Sediment Cores

4 Heavy Metals and Organic Pollutants in the Sediment Cores 

As the available space does not permit to show all the analyzed components and parameters of the nine cores in figures, the vertical patterns of selected heavy metals and organic pollutants are demonstrated by one example (core No. 257 350 from the Gotland Basin). Later on, we will compare the selected parameters in the different cores (areas) and finally come to an inventory estimation and assessment of the results. 

On the right-hand side of Fig. 14.18, the determined ages (calendar years) of selected sediment depths are given to identify the temporal development of the deposition of contaminant. Although in detail heavy metals as well as organic pollutants show individual differences in the vertical distribution, the general patterns are remarkably similar and typical for all the investigated cores  

Namral background concentrations for heavy metals can be identified by the nearly stable or constant values below the sediment depth, which represents about the change from the nineteenth to the twentieth century. A comparison of natural background values of the heavy metals Cu, Pb, Zn, Hg in different Baltic Sea Basins, based on the cores of this study and completed by former investigations (Brugmann, 1998), is given in Table 14.5. 

TABLE 14.5 Natural Background Concentrations of Heavy Metals in Different Basins 

---