Metal accumulation in salt marsh soils along the East Coast of the United States.

Autor: Jezycki KE; Department of Geography and the Environment, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA., Rodriguez E; Department of Geography and the Environment, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA., Craft CB; O'Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA., Neubauer SC; Department of Biology, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA, USA., Morris JT; Department of Biological Sciences, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA., Goldsmith ST; Department of Geography and the Environment, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA., Kremer P; Department of Geography and the Environment, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA., Weston NB; Department of Geography and the Environment, Villanova University, Villanova, PA, USA. Electronic address: nathaniel.weston@villanova.edu.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: The Science of the total environment [Sci Total Environ] 2024 Apr 20; Vol. 922, pp. 171025. Date of Electronic Publication: 2024 Feb 20.
DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.171025
Abstrakt: Coastal salt marshes are depositional environments that can accumulate pollutants introduced to the environment from human activities. Metals are a contaminant of concern in coastal environments due to their longevity and toxicity. We assessed metal concentrations and accumulation rates in nine salt marsh sites along the U.S. East Coast from Maine to Georgia. Following a metal mobility assay in organic-rich and mineral dominated salt marsh soils under aerobic/anaerobic and freshwater/saltwater conditions, we focused on profiles of chromium, nickel, copper, zinc, cadmium, lead, and uranium in two soil cores from each of the nine marshes that had previously been dated using lead-210 radioisotope techniques. We examined how land cover and the spatial distribution of land cover, marsh vertical accretion, and other watershed characteristics correlated with metal concentrations and depth/time-integrated accumulation of metals. We found statistically significant differences in metal concentrations and/or inventories between sites, with accumulation of metals positively correlated with both developed land cover in the watershed and rates of vertical accretion in the tidal marsh. The accumulation of chromium, cadmium, and lead were significantly correlated with developed land cover while the accumulation of chromium, nickel, copper, zinc, and lead were correlated with factors that determine sediment delivery from the landscape (e.g., riverine suspended sediment, soil erodibility in the watershed, and agricultural land cover skewed towards the coast) and measured wetland accretion rates. We observed declines in the concentration of many metals since 1925 at sites along the U.S. East Coast, indicating pollution mitigation strategies have succeeded in reducing metal pollution and delivery to the coastal zone. However, increasing rates of salt marsh vertical accretion over recent decades largely offset reductions in metal concentrations, resulting in rates of metal accumulation in coastal salt marsh soils that have not changed or, in some instances, increased over time.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2024 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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