Analysis and Tendencies of Metals and POPs in a Sediment Core from the Alvarado Lagoon System (ALS), Veracruz, Mexico

Abstract

This study focused on dating of a sediment core from the Alvarado Lagoon System, Veracruz, Mexico, calculating the sedimentation rate by using Pb to determine the tendency towards pollution by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, organochlorides, the metals Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and V, and organic matter content. The activity of total Pb and supported Pb in the samples was 83.1 and 29.5 Bq kg, respectively, whereas the average estimated sedimentation rate was 0.48 ± 0.09 cm per year. The organic matter values exhibited linear behavior throughout the historical profile, with values under 2.5%. Metal concentrations followed the order V > Cr > Ni > Cu > Pb > Hg > Cd. Variations found in Cr, Ni, Pb, and V concentrations are basically due to three meteorological phenomena that hit the region: hurricanes Gladys, Hilda, and Janet in September of 1955. V, Ni, and Hg input comes from anthropogenic and lithogenic sources. The presence of individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons showed no ascending accumulation pattern over time, nor did it show any significant statistical correlation to OM. As for the organochlorine pesticides, 63.61% of the total sum of these compounds were from the ciclodienics family. Concentration of p,p'-DDT was observed only in the earliest profile, from 1929.

Monthly variation of micro- and macro-element composition in smooth scallop, Flexopecten glaber (Linnaeus, 1758), from the Çardak Lagoon (Çanakkale Strait, Turkey)

“…Lagoons are ecotones between freshwater, marine, and terrestrial biotopes (Ustaoğlu et al, 2012;Maanan et al, 2015;Botello et al, 2018;Kükrer et al, 2020). Lagoons are connected to the sea via one or more canals.…”

Pollution Issues in Coastal Lagoons in the Gulf of Mexico

“…These values are far below the ERL index of 4.02 μg g −1 . The compound with the highest value in all core strata was chrysene, except for the stratum from 26 to 36 cm, where it was below the detection limit; the highest concentration in this stratum corresponded to benzo[α]anthracene with 0.591 μg g −1 , benzo[κ]fluoranthene and indeno[1,2,3,c,d]pyrene compounds were not detected by the analytical method employed for their determination [41]; only the latter showed a concentration of 0.0427 μg g −1 in the deepest stratum corresponding to the year 1929. This study showed that compounds with four aromatic rings were predominant in all core strata (Figure 2), which suggests that they were byproducts of pyrolytic processes near the study zone, such as high-temperature combustion of organic matter and fossil fuels.…”

“…The lagoon receives large volumes of fresh water that vary according to the climatic epochs in a 49,700 km 2 basin. It also receives water from the Yucatan Peninsula, the lowlands of Tabasco and the highlands of Chiapas and Guatemala [35]. Three main rivers discharge their waters to the lagoon.…”

Contexto socioeconómico y problemática ambiental de la pesca en el Sistema Lagunar de Alvarado, Veracruz, desde la perspectiva de los pobladores

“…Pese a la importancia ecológica del SLA y de la pesca ribereña que se practica en dicho ecosistema, la contaminación y la sobreextracción ponen en peligro su conservación, así como dicha actividad económica tradicional, debido, sobre todo, a la disminución de la productividad a consecuencia de la pérdida del hábitat en los humedales que lo constituyen (Vázquez et al, 2015).…”

“…Sobre el SLA se han realizado investigaciones de la problemática ambiental, en mayor medida desde diferentes disciplinas de las ciencias naturales, que han abordado temáticas como la presencia de contaminantes en el agua (Palmerín et al, 2014;Ruiz et al, 2014;Castañeda, Lango y Navarrete, 2018;Vázquez et al, 2018); el transporte del mercurio y bioacumulación en comunidades ribereñas del SLA (Lango et al, 2013;Ramos et al, 2013); la eutrofización (Herrera, Morales y Cortés, 2011); los cambios fisicoquímicos del agua de la laguna de Alvarado (De la Lanza, 2017); la distribución de especies ecológicamente importantes (Daniel, Serrano y Sánchez, 2010;Daniel, Serrano y Sánchez, 2012;Silva et al, 2012); el impacto ambiental de actividades económicas como el cultivo de caña de azúcar y la ganadería (Guentzel et al, 2011); el vínculo de los manglares con los recursos pesqueros y su problemática (Moreno et al, 2002); así como el valor económico de los manglares y humedales de agua dulce basado en el valor comercial de la pesca (Vázquez et al, 2015). Sin embargo, los aspectos ambientales han sido poco tratados desde un enfoque interdisciplinario socioambiental que tome en cuenta la opinión de los pescadores.…”