Abstract
Previous research has revealed that agricultural intensification in the Chao Lake Valley since the 1980s has led to significant heavy metal and phosphorus (P) contamination of estuarine sediments in this region. However, the pore water plays a more important role than do sediments in the cycling of nutrients and metals in estuarine ecosystems. Average concentrations of Cd, Cr, Ni, Pb, and P in the pore water of estuarine sediments were 0.634, 3.11, 4.98, 3.98, and 49.9 μg L−1, respectively. Average diffusive fluxes of these elements from the pore water to overlying water were −0.015, 0.058, 0.768, −0.238, and 20.0 μg m−2 d−1, respectively. Compared with similar studies, the values of heavy metal fluxes were low, indicating minimal diffusion between sediments and overlying waters; however, P diffusion from the sediment pore water to overlying water was high, indicating that the sediments may be a direct source of P to overlying water. Since P is a major cause of algal blooming in agricultural estuaries of Chao Lake, the obtained results could be useful in developing effective management strategies to control pollution in the Chao Lake Valley.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beck M, Dellwig O, Liebezeit G, Schnetger B, Brumsack HJ (2008) Spatial and seasonal variations of sulphate, dissolved organic carbon, and nutrients in deep pore waters of intertidal flat sediments. Estuar Coast Shelf Sci 79:307–316
Bulut E, Aksoy A (2008) Impact of fertilizer usage on phosphorus loads to Lake Uluabat. Desalination 226:289–297
Caetano M, Madureira MJ, Vale C (2007) Exchange of Cu and Cd across the sediment-water interface in intertidal mud flats from Ria Formosa (Portugal). Hydrobiologia 587:147–155
Caffrey JM, Murrell MC, Wigand C, McKinney R (2007) Effect of nutrient loading on biogeochemical and microbial processes in a New England salt marsh. Biogeochemistry 82:251–264
Chanda MN, Shirodkar PV, Singbal SYS (1996) Studies on organic carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus in the sediments of Mandovi estuary, Goa. Ind. India J Mar Sci 25:120–124
Clavero V, Izquierdo JJ, Fernandez JA, Niell FX (2000) Seasonal fluxes of phosphate and ammonium across the sediment-water interface in a shallow small estuary (Palmones River, southern Spain). Mar Ecol Prog Ser 198:51–60
Doyle C, Pablo F, Lim R, Hyne R (2003) Assessment of metal toxicity in sediment pore water from Lake Macquarie, Australia. Arch Environ Con Tox 44:0343–0350
Gao F, Deng J, Li Q, Hu L, Zhu J, Hang H, Hu W (2012) A new collector for in situ pore water sampling in wetland sediment. Environ Technol 33:257–264
Jin XC, Xu QJ, Huang CZ (2005) Current status and future tendency of lake eutrophication in China. Science in China (Series C) 48:948–954 (in Chinese)
Katsev S, Tsandev I, L'Heureux I, Rancourt DG (2006) Factors controlling long-term phosphorus efflux from lake sediments: Exploratory reactive-transport modeling. Chem Geol 234:127–147
Kowalczewska-Madura K, Gołdyn R (2012) Spatial and seasonal variability of pore water phosphorus concentration in shallow Lake Swarzędzkie, Poland. Environ Monit Assess 184:1509–1516
Linda N, Peter O, Mats A (2008) Estuarine behaviour of metal loads leached from coastal lowland acid sulphate soils. Mar Environ Res 66:378–393
Muller B, Wang Y, Dittrich M, Wehrli B (2003) Influence of organic carbon decomposition on calcite dissolution in surficial sediments of a freshwater lake. Water Res 37:4524–4532
Ololade I, Lajide L, Ololade O, Adeyemi O (2011) Metal partitioning in sediment pore water from the Ondo coastal region, Nigeria. Toxico Enviro Chem 93:1098–1110
Ospina-Alvarez N, Caetano M, Vale C, Santos-Echeandia J, Prego R (2014) Prevalence of tide-induced transport over other metal sources in a geologically enriched temperate estuarine zone (NW Iberian Peninsula). J Geochem Explor 140:46–55
Paoletti MG, Giampietro M, Chunru H, Pastore G, Bukkens SGF (1999) Studying agricultural intensification and sustainability in PR China. Crit Rev Plant Sci 18:257–259
Pei H, Wang Y (2003) Eutrophication research of West Lake, Hangzhou, China: Modeling under uncertainty. Water Res 37:416–428
Pogodaeva T, Zemskaya T, Golobokova L, Khlystov O, Minami H, Sakagami H (2007) Chemical composition of pore waters of bottom sediments in different Baikal basins. Russ Geol Geophys 48:886–900
Polizzotto ML, Kocar BD, Benner SG, Sampson M, Fendorf S (2008) Near-surface wetland sediments as a source of arsenic release to ground water in Asia. Nature 454:505–508
Qiao YM, Yang Y, Liu ZQ, Tao R (2012) Heavy metal sources and associated risk in response to rapid urbanization in surface sediments of Shantou Bay, South China. Adv Environ Sci Eng 518–523:977–981
Qin DM, Chen XH (1996) The agriculture development of Yangtze–Huaihe region in Six Dynasties period. Agriculture History China 15:12–19 (in Chinese)
Raju KV, Somashekar RK, Prakash KL (2012) Heavy metal status of sediment in river Cauvery, Karnataka. Environ Monit Assess 184:361–373
Ranjita RH, Antoine Y, Narayan BB (2008) Sources of hydrocarbons in sediments of the Mandovi estuary and the Marmugoa harbour, west coast of India. Environ Int 34:959–965
Santos-Echeandia J, Vale C, Caetano M, Pereira P, Prego R (2010) Effect of tidal flooding on metal distribution in pore waters of marsh sediments and its transport to water column (Tagus estuary, Portugal). Mar Environ Res 70:358–367
Shotbolt L (2010) Pore water sampling from lake and estuary sediments using Rhizon samplers. J Paleolimnol 44:695–700
Tang WZ, Shan BQ, Zhang H (2010a) Phosphorus buildup and release risk associated with agricultural intensification in the estuarine sediments of Chaohu Lake Valley, eastern China. Clean-Soil, Air, Water 38:336–343
Tang WZ, Shan BQ, Zhang H, Mao ZP (2010b) Heavy metal sources and associated risk in response to agricultural intensification in the estuarine sediments of Chaohu Lake Valley, East China. J Hazard Mater 176:945–951
Tu QY, Gu DX, Yin CQ, Xu ZR, Han JZ (1991) The Chao Lake-study on eutrophication. University of Science and Technology of China. Press, Hefei (in Chinese)
United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) (2009) National recommended water quality criteria. US Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, DC
Wang SM, Dou HS (1998) Record of Chinese Lakes. Science Press, Beijing (in Chinese)
Wang WW, Li DJ, Zhou JL, Gao L (2011) Nutrient dynamics in pore water of tidal marshes near the Yangtze Estuary and Hangzhou Bay, China. Environ Earth Sci 63:1067–1077
Zhang H, Shan BQ (2008a) Historical distribution and partitioning of phosphorus in sediments in an agricultural watershed in the Yangtze-Huaihe region, China. Environ Sci Technol 42:2328–2333
Zhang H, Shan BQ (2008b) Historical records of heavy metal accumulation in sediments and the relationship with agricultural intensification in the Yangtze-Huaihe region, China. Sci Total Environ 399:113–120
Acknowledgment
This work was supported by the Research & Development on Suitable Key Technologies of the Village Environmental Monitoring (2012BAJ24B01).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding authors
Additional information
Responsible editor: Céline Guéguen
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tang, W., Zhang, H., Zhang, W. et al. Dynamics of heavy metals and phosphorus in the pore water of estuarine sediments following agricultural intensification in Chao Lake Valley. Environ Sci Pollut Res 22, 7948–7953 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3945-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3945-x