Sedimentary evidence for changes in the pollution status of Taihu in the Jiangsu region of eastern China

Abstract

As part of a study using lake sediments to determine the extent and causes of human impacts to lakes along an east-west transect following the Yangtse River, sediment cores were taken from Taihu in eastern China. Previous studies have focussed on the impacts of direct inputs of pollutants from municipal and industrial wastewater but little work has been undertaken on trends in atmospheric deposition from the many industrial sources surrounding the lake. Analysis of the Taihu sediment cores for atmospheric pollutant indicators such as trace metals, magnetic parameters and spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCPs) show the lake has become increasingly contaminated over the last 40-50 years. Sediment levels of atmospherically deposited pollutants are currently similar to some of the more contaminated lakes in Europe. Further, sediment nitrogen, phosphorus and geochemical analyses confirm the dramatic increase in eutrophication at the site and periods of recent soil erosion in the catchment.

Sediment records of the metal pollution at Chihu Lake near a copper mine at the middle Yangtze River in China

“…8). The extent of the Pb enrichment at the CH1 site was comparable to many lakes located in the middle and Yangtze River Basin in which there is no point pollution of Pb (Rose et al, 2004;Liu et al, 2007;Yao et al, 2009;Yuan et al, 2011). The low enrichment of Pb at CH1 implies that the atmospheric source of Pb loading to the lake cannot be ignored or may even be a major source to the lake sediment at the CH1 site.…”

“…According to a simple surface sediment survey conducted by the Nanjing Institute of Geography and Limnology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2007, the Cu content ranged from 36.3-382.3 mg kg Paleolimnology offers a unique historical perspective for the study of the effects of the Wushan Copper Mine activities on Chihu Lake and the pre-disturbance environmental conditions of the lake. An analysis of the trace metals in the lake sediment cores with the chronology can provide valuable insights into the historical metal inputs (Boyle et al, 1999;Rose et al, 2004;Yang and Rose, 2005;Couillard et al, 2008). Heavy metals in the Chihu Lake sediments include not only the anthropogenic source but also the metal from the natural input of the catchment.…”

“…Using the CIC (constant initial concentration) model of 210 Pb, the average sediment rate of 0.84 cm a -1 can be calculated in the section in the CH1 core, which was quite different from 137 Cs result. 210 Pb CRS (constant rate of supply of 210 Pb ) model and composite model from CRS are commonly used to date sediment ages of shallow lakes at Yangtze River Basin (Rose et al, 2004;Wu et al, 2008;Liu et al, 2012;Yao and Xue, 2015). The CRS model Pb and the sediment depth in the CH2 core.…”

Late Pleistocene and Holocene environmental evolution of the Wkra River Valley near Bielawy Gołuskie (central Poland) recorded in palaeo-oxbow lake deposits

“…For ex am ple, the contents of sil ica, po tas sium and alu mi num are com monly con sidered as in di ca tors of me chan i cal de nu da tion in ten sity, whereas the con tent of cal cium re flects the in ten sity of chem i cal de nu dation. The abun dance of ni tro gen and phos pho rus pro vides in forma tion about trophic con di tions; con cen tra tions of heavy metals are in di ces of hu man ac tiv ity (Ham il ton-Tay lor, 1979;Abraham, 1998;Last and Smol, 2001;Rose et al, 2004;Jin et al, 2006;Borówka, 2007;Schmidt et al, 2008;Paw³owski et al, 2015a, b). How ever, pri mary fea tures of sed i ments can undergo trans for ma tion in post-sed i men ta tion pro cesses (Boyle, 2001;Hag gard et al, 2005;Wil son et al, 2008), which may ham per cor rect in ter pre ta tion.…”

Diatom response to heavy metal pollution and nutrient enrichment in an urban lake: evidence from paleolimnology

“…Urban watersheds generally produce higher unit area nutrient loadings from runoff and sewage, compared to other watersheds (Naselli-Flores, 2008). In addition, industrial activities produce large amount of metals that are easily transported to urban lakes by water runoff (Boyle et al, 1999;Rose et al, 2004;Wu et al, 2012). Thus, urban lakes collect and accumulate large amount of nutrients and metals.…”