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Detection and Monitoring of REEs and Related Trace Elements with an Itrax™ Core Scanner in the Ría de Huelva (SW Spain)

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Abstract

The Ría de Huelva is one of the most polluted areas in Western Europe because of the high acid mining activity together with the chemical industries located in its margins. This strong anthropogenic pressure results in the liberation of high concentrations of metals and rare earth elements (REEs) to the Ría. In this work, an Itrax™ Core Scanner (Itrax) has been used for the first time to detect and to study REEs distribution in a sediment core. Its high sensitivity (until 5 μg·g −1 for Er) was confirmed by comparing its semi-quantitative results with concentration values obtained from inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). In this way, establishing equivalences between Itrax continuous data and concentration data have been possible to detect pollution levels caused by REEs and related trace elements along the whole sediment core reducing the discrete analyses and therefore saving time and money. Moreover, Itrax was confirmed as a fast screening and monitoring tool to study REEs fractionation patterns and to identify the environmental changes responsible of these patterns.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through projects IPT-310000-2010-17 (INNODRAVAL) and GCL2010-16688 and by the Xunta de Galicia through project 10MMA312022PR. I. Rodríguez-Germade was funded by a FPU scholarship from the Ministry of Education.

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  1. Research group GEOMA, Departamento de Geociencias Marinas y Ordenación del Territorio, Universidad de Vigo, Vigo, Spain

    I. Rodríguez-Germade, B. Rubio & D. Rey

  2. Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Huelva, Huelva, Spain

    J. Borrego

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  1. I. Rodríguez-Germade
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  2. B. Rubio
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  3. D. Rey
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  4. J. Borrego
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Correspondence to B. Rubio.

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Rodríguez-Germade, I., Rubio, B., Rey, D. et al. Detection and Monitoring of REEs and Related Trace Elements with an Itrax™ Core Scanner in the Ría de Huelva (SW Spain). Water Air Soil Pollut 226, 137 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-015-2389-3

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