2000 years of sediment-borne heavy metal storage in the Yorkshire Ouse basin, NE England, UK

Abstract

Floodplain overbank sediments are often used to evaluate the in¯uence of environmental change on sediment and chemical¯uxes within river basins. This paper presents the results of an investigation of heavy metal storage in seven¯oodplain reaches in the Yorkshire Ouse basin in north-east England. Floodplain heavy metal storage has been greatest since c. 1750, and many of the post-1750 sedimentary units exhibit heavy metal values that exceed recommended trigger and guideline values for contaminated land. Relatively high heavy metal storage occurs from AD 1250±1750 in most of the reaches. These patterns are related to 2000 years of Pb and Zn mining in the Yorkshire Dales and c. 250±300 years of industrial and urbanization activity around Leeds and Bradford, and increased delivery of ®ne-grained sediment during the last millennium, possibly owing to factors such as population growth and agricultural expansion during the Middle Ages, and climate change during the Little Ice Age.

Dispersal of Contaminant Metals in the Mining-Affected Danube and Maritsa Drainage Basins, Bulgaria, Eastern Europe

“…6), suggesting that they are acting as sources of sediment-bound metals to the River Danube. Concentrations observed in the Danube floodplain are a likely result of inputs It has been noted by a number of authors that floodplain sediments can record the contamination legacy of historical metal mining activity within a river catchment (Hudson-Edwards et al 1999;Macklin 1985;Macklin et al 1994;Marron 1992). Calculation of ratios between metal levels in river channel and floodplain sediments can provide an indication of the relative importance of the active and stored sediment loads.…”

Spatial Variability of Heavy-Metal Storage in the Floodplain of the Alamosa River, Colorado

“…Surface waters and the adjacent floodplain are especially susceptible to heavy-metal contamination as metals become adsorbed to sediment particles and are deposited in or alongside the active channel (Lecce and Pavlowsky, 1997;Miller et al, 1999;Zhao et al, 1999;Martin, 2000Martin, , 2004. Storage of metals is often brief in geomorphically active watersheds (Marcus, 1989;Hudson-Edwards et al, 1999;James, 2005), but can be long-term if stored on higher topographic positions or in lowgradient basins (Miller, 1997;Zhao et al, 1999;Coulthard and Macklin, 2003). Locally, channel-bank erosion reduces metal concentrations, but elevates the risk of contamination downstream (Schwartz et al, 2006).…”

Holocene environmental change in the Yorkshire Ouse basin and its influence on river dynamics and sediment fluxes to the coastal zone

“…Geochemical analyses were carried out in all reaches to establish first, the effects of historic base metal mining on rivers draining the Yorkshire Dales orefield; and secondly, to determine the principal sources of alluvial sediment and whether these had varied during the Holocene. All samples (249 total) were analysed by X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry at the British Geological Survey for A1203, CaO, Fe203, K20, MgO, MnO, SiO2, TiO2, As, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sr, Y Zn and Zr, and full details of the analytical procedures can be found in Hudson-Edwards et al (1999b). Age control was provided by 52 14C dates on a variety of organic materials (wood, bone and peat) incorporated within alluvial deposits.…”

“…Metal delivery starts to rise between cal. AD 1000 and 1250, which at York can be directly related to eleventh century mining activity dated by archaeological evidence (Hudson-Edwards et al 1999a). Unexpectedly, there is no evidence for metal pollution at York, or in any other of the regions' rivers, during the Roman occupation.…”

“…Unexpectedly, there is no evidence for metal pollution at York, or in any other of the regions' rivers, during the Roman occupation. The highest rates of contaminant metal deposition have occurred in the last 250 years, with most of the mining waste (up to 94% of Pb at Myton-on-Swale, Hudson-Edwards et al 1999b) being stored in lowland river reaches within the Vale of York. This would suggest that contaminant metal delivery to the Humber Estuary from historic mining in the northern Dales rivers might have been relatively low since AD 1750 and possibly in earlier periods.…”