Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 110, Issue 2, Pages 195-205Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/S0269-7491(99)00310-3
Keywords
metal contamination; mangroves; fine-grained fraction; sand sized; principal component analysis
Categories
Ask authors/readers for more resources
The degree of heavy metal contamination in the fine-grained (< 63 mu m) and sand-sized (2 mm-63 mu m) fractions of surface sediments in 18 different mangrove swamps (144 random samples) in Hong Kong was examined. Higher concentrations of heavy metals were found in the fine-grained than the sand-sized fractions of the sediment; however, the differences between these two fractions became less significant when the swamp was more contaminated. The principal component analyses show that the 18 mangrove swamps, according to the median concentrations of total heavy metals, were clustered into four groups. The first group included three mangrove swamps in Deep Bay region which are seriously contaminated, with heavy metal concentrations in sediments around 80 mu g g(-1) Cu, 240 mu g g(-1) Zn, 40 mu g g(-1) Cr, 30 mu g g(-1) Ni, 3 mu g g(-1) Cd and 80 mu g g(-1) Pb. The second cluster, made up of another four swamps distributed in different geographical locations (two in Sai Kung district and two in Tolo region), also had elevated levels of Cu, Pb, Ni and Cr in the sediments. Field observation reveals that these seven stands received industrial, livestock and domestic sewage as well as pollution from mariculture activities, suggesting that anthropogenic input is the main source of heavy metal contamination in Hong Kong mangroves. The sediments from other mangrove swamps were relatively uncontaminated. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available