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Effects of Anthropogenic Activities on the Elemental Concentration in Surface Sediment of Oxbows

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Abstract

The Upper Tisza floodplain region provides a mosaic of aquatic habitats including a series of oxbows. Inorganic contaminants can accumulate in the sediment; thus, the sediment is good indicator of the contamination of these oxbows. Our aim was to explore the effects of anthropogenic activities on the concentration of elements and also to study the influence of vegetation types on the element in surface sediment of oxbows. We studied eight oxbows: two of them were protected, four of them were used for fishing and two of them were contaminated with domestic sewage. The following elements were measured with MP-AES in surface sediment: Al, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn. The elemental concentration was compared to the toxicity classes of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the assessment of the level of toxicity was based on this comparison. We found that studied oxbows were different from each other based on the elemental concentrations of sediment using canonical discriminant analysis and analysis of variance. Based on the elemental concentration in surface sediment of oxbows, separation was also found among vegetation types. But significant difference was not found in the concentrations of elements based on vegetation types. Our results demonstrated that the anthropogenic activities had remarkable effects on the elemental concentration of surface sediment in oxbows. Our findings suggest that the sediment is useful to assess the effects of anthropogenic activities on elemental concentrations of oxbows.

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Acknowledgments

The research was partially supported by the Internal Research Project of the University of Debrecen (E. Simon), by the TÁMOP 4.2.1./B-09/1/KONV-2010-0024 project and by the SROP-4.2.2.B-15/1/KONV20150001 project.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Ecology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, P. O. Box 71, H-4010, Hungary

    Zsuzsanna Balogh, Sándor Harangi, János Tamás Kundrát & Edina Simon

  2. Department of Hydrobiology, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, P. O. Box 71, H-4010, Hungary

    István Gyulai

  3. MTA-DE Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services Research Group, Debrecen, P. O. Box 71, H-4010, Hungary

    Béla Tóthmérész

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  1. Zsuzsanna Balogh
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  2. Sándor Harangi
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  3. János Tamás Kundrát
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  4. István Gyulai
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  5. Béla Tóthmérész
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  6. Edina Simon
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Correspondence to Edina Simon.

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Balogh, Z., Harangi, S., Kundrát, J.T. et al. Effects of Anthropogenic Activities on the Elemental Concentration in Surface Sediment of Oxbows. Water Air Soil Pollut 227, 13 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-015-2714-x

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