Abundance and mobility of metal(loid)s in reservoir sediments of Singe Tsangpo and Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibet, China: Implications for ecological risk

Geogenic arsenic enrichment in soil and river sediments of Tibet compared to its upper crustal abundance has been observed, raising the question whether other trace elements are also enriched and thus may pose ecological risks. Because human activities are limited, the reservoir sediments after the recent construction of the Shiquan dam on the Singe Tsangpo (ST) and the Zam dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo (YT) collect and thus represent material sourced from 14,870 km(2) and 157,668 km(2) of drainage areas, respectively. Bulk concentrations of the metalloid (As) and 13 metals (Li, Be, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, Cs, and Pb) are analyzed for 123 samples from 9 mostly silty sediment cores (depth: 11-20 cm) from the Shiquan Reservoir and for 250 samples from 13 mostly sandy sediment cores (depth: 9-28 cm) from the Zam Reservoir. These elemental concentrations are normalized to the upper crustal Fe abundance of 3.9% to arrive at a regional sediment geochemical background value for each element. The regional background values of most elements in the ST drainage and the YT drainage are comparable with the upper crustal abundance. However, three elements (Li, As, and Cs) in both drainage basins display significant enrichment compared to their respective upper crustal abundance. Sequential leaching of a subset of sediment samples from the ST (n = 18) and YT (n = 29) drainages reveals that chemical fractions of metals and metalloids in these two reservoirs are similar, with most of the elements dominated by the residual fraction with low mobility. Taken together, the ecological risks of the most studied elements in the reservoir sediments are likely low pending further aquatic bioavailability investigations, except that As, Cu, Pb, and Be deserve more attention due to their elevated levels in mobile fractions.

Automated summary

The geogenic enrichment of arsenic, lithium, and cesium in soil and river sediments of Tibet raises ecological risks. While most elements in reservoir sediments have regional background values comparable to upper crustal abundance, arsenic, lithium, and cesium show significant enrichment. Further attention is needed for arsenic, copper, lead, and beryllium due to their elevated levels in mobile fractions.