Abstract
The Doñana National Park is one of the most importantNatural Reserves in west Europe. The park and theGuadalquivir estuary were impacted by the release of 5million cubic meters of acid waste from the processing ofpyrite ore. Here are presented a multivariate analysisapproach to evaluate the extension and the magnitude of theaccidental spill on the estuarine sediments. Sediments wereused to analyze 6 different metals (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cd, Pb, Cu).Also the concentration of the metals in the differentgeochemical sediment fractions were determined as a means ofassessing the potential impact of the acid water from themine. The analysis of the results obtained permits toestablish that the impact of the accident was acute on theecosystem due to the set up of a treatment plan in June 1998and to the high hydrodynamic of the estuary that absorb theearly impact. Chronic contamination by Cu was also detectedduring the monitoring of the impact of the accident in theestuary but this did not appear to be related to theaccidental spill. Because the likelihood of long term adverseeffects from the heavy metal contamination of estuarinesediments, further ecotoxicological evaluations should becarried out for the estuary and the park using an integrated approach.
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Riba, I., DelValls, T.A., Forja, J.M. et al. Evaluating the Heavy Metal Contamination in Sediments from the Guadalquivir Estuary after the Aznalcóllar Mining Spill (SW Spain): A Multivariate Analysis Approach. Environ Monit Assess 77, 191–207 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015828020313
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015828020313