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Contents of some heavy metals in plants from Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron) and some small lakes in wilderness areas of Michigan's Upper Peninsula as analyzed by neutron activation analysis

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Abstract

Our results indicate that the highest concentrations of heavy metals occurred in those plants collected near the mouth of the Saginaw River. The alga, Cladophora sp., and the flowering plant, Typha augustifolia (cat-tail), are notable for the high concentration of heavy metals that they accumulated. In addition, several other species that were sampled from small lakes in Michigan's Upper Peninsula contained higher concentrations of certain metals (Ba, Cr, Rb) than from any samples obtained from Saginaw Bay. Different organs of the same species, or of the same plant, such as cat-tail, vary widely in concentrations of the same elements. A computer-derived analysis of our data is presented, and the implications of our results as they relate to pollution by heavy metals in fresh-water lakes is discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Cranbrook Institute of Science, 48013, Bloomfield Hills, MI, (USA)

    J. R. Wells

  2. Department of Botany, The University of Michigan, 48109, Ann Arbor, MI, (USA)

    P. B. Kaufman, J. D. Jones, G. F. Estabrook & N. S. Ghosheh

  3. Phoenix Memorial Laboratory, The University of Michigan, 48109, Ann Arbor, MI, (USA)

    P. B. Kaufman, J. D. Jones, G. F. Estabrook & N. S. Ghosheh

  4. Department of Biology, Eastern Michigan University, 48197, Ypsilanti, MI, (USA)

    P. B. Kaufman, J. D. Jones, G. F. Estabrook & N. S. Ghosheh

Authors
  1. J. R. Wells
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  2. P. B. Kaufman
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  3. J. D. Jones
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  4. G. F. Estabrook
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  5. N. S. Ghosheh
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Additional information

This work was supported by a private subsidy from Edna Newnan, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan to whom we express our thanks for hernerous support. We also wish to thank the Division of Biological Sciences, The University of Michigan, for making funds available for the computer analyses performed in this study.

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Wells, J.R., Kaufman, P.B., Jones, J.D. et al. Contents of some heavy metals in plants from Saginaw Bay (Lake Huron) and some small lakes in wilderness areas of Michigan's Upper Peninsula as analyzed by neutron activation analysis. J. Radioanal. Chem. 71, 97–113 (1982). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02516143

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02516143

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