Colloid formation and facilitated chromium transport in the coastal area soil induced by freshwater and seawater alternating fluctuations

Seawater seasonal fluctuation results in its close interaction with freshwater in the coastal area, which may affect behavior of contaminants there. This study was conducted to explore the transport and transformation of soil colloid and associated Cr during freshwater and seawater alternating fluctuations by laboratory experiment and numerical simulation. Such a fluctuation brought downward migration of Cr from upper contaminated soil and induced reduction of Cr(VI) into Cr(III). An obvious increase of retained Cr(III) was observed at the lower layers of soil due to the reducing environment. More importantly, the colloids with average sizes between 800-1500 nm was formed during the fluctuation and mainly composed of microcline and Fe/Mn oxides minerals, which determined the Cr transport. Compared with the previous freshwater fluctuation, seawater fluctuations generated more and larger-sized colloids due to its high ionic strength. These colloids carried over 94% Cr in the effluent and Cr(III) accounted for over 95% of total Cr. A colloid-facilitated Cr transport modeling showed that the soil retained Cr decreased by about 14% after eight rounds of fluctuation on an actual soil-contaminated site scale. Our study provides insight for the understanding of geochemical process of Cr in the coastal area under freshwater and seawater fluctuation conditions.

Automated summary

The seasonal fluctuation of seawater in coastal areas has a close interaction with freshwater, which can affect the behavior of contaminants. This study investigated the transport and transformation of soil colloid and associated Cr during alternating fluctuations of freshwater and seawater through laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. The results showed that seawater fluctuations generated more and larger-sized colloids, which facilitated the transport and transformation of Cr.