A study of copper, lead and cadmium speciation in some estuarine and coastal marine waters

Abstract

The potential of a heavy metal speciation scheme to reflect differences in metal distributions within a water mass was evaluated in a study of soluble copper, lead and cadmium speciation in water samples from five stations in the Port Hacking Estuary (Australia) and one coastal Pacific Ocean station. The observed metal distributions were found to be consistent with the other measured physical and chemical properties of the sampled waters. In all samples, the percentages of metals associated with colloidal matter were high, amounting to 40–60% of total copper, 45–70% of total lead and 15–35% of total cadmium. The scheme was used to follow changes in metal speciation under different sample storage conditions. Storage at 4 °C in polythene containers was shown to prevent losses or changes in speciation of the metals studied.