Abstract
The current study was performed to investigate the influence of variable grain size on the concentration of anthropogenic trace metal contaminants in the reclaimed area adjacent to Port Jackson, Sydney, Australia. In reclaimed areas affected by groundwater, trace metal concentrations in soils are greatly influenced by the heterogeneous nature of the waste materials buried at the site. The confounding effects of variable grain size in soils can be reduced by analysing the contaminant concentration of the material after removing >2 mm size in sample. An example from Sydney Harbour is used to demonstrate the comparability between grain size normalised data and elemental normalized data using Fe in soils from reclaimed areas. Results from the current study reveal that the vertical distribution of trace metal concentrations in soils are remarkably similar between the grain size and elemental normalization, using Fe.
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Suh, JY. Hydrogeochemical aspects in reclaimed area, Sydney, Australia. Geosci J 8, 61–71 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02910279
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02910279