Aggregation and divergent process of As in the bay mouth of Jiaozhou Bay

Abstract

This paper analyzed the content and distribution of Arsenic (As) in bottom waters in the bay mouth of Jiaozhou Bay in May, September and October 1983. Results showed As contents ranged from 0.15-2.30 μg L in bottom waters in the whole year, and were more lower than Class I for As (20.00 μg L) in National Standard of China for Seawater Quality (GB3097-1997). Jiaozhou Bay was very slightly contaminated by As in 1983 by means of vertical water’s effect. In according to the horizontal distributions of As in the bay mouth, there was a high value region in May (1.74 μg L) in the bay mouth, while in September and October were low value regions (0.15-0.44 μg L). There were both aggreation and divergent processes of As in the bay mouth, whose preconditions were both concave submarine landform and high flow rate, and whose decisive conditions were high contents of low contents of As in surface waters, respectively. Introduction Arsenic compounds were a class of critical toxic substance. For instance, arsenic oxide (As2O3) was one of the famous poison in ancient times. In nowadays, arsenic compounds are widely used in industries and agriculture. A large amount of As-containing waste gas, water and slag were generated and discharged to the atmosphere, soil, and waters, and were finally discharged to the ocean. As pollution in marine environment especially in coastal waters have been serious issues in many coastal countries and regions [1-3]. As pollution is harmful to the marine ecosystem, as well as human by means of food chain. Jiaozhou Bay is a semi-closed bay located in Shandong Province, eastern China, and has been polluted by various pollutants including marine ecosystem[1-4]. Based on the investigation data on As in different seasons in 1983, the aim of this paper was to analysis the content and distribution of As in the bay, and to provide basis for the research on the existence and transfer process of As in bay waters. Materials and method Jiaozhou Bay (35°55′-36°18′ N, 120°04′-120°23′ E) is located in the south of Shandong Peninsula, eastern China. The area and and average water depth are 460 km and 7 m, respectively, yet the bay mouth is only 2.5 km (Fig. 1). This bay is surrounding by cities of Qingdao, Jiaozhou and Jiaonan in the east, north and south, and is connected with the Yellow Sea in the south. There are more than ten inflow rivers such as Loushan River, Licun River and Haibo River, all of which are seasonal rivers [4-5]. The investigation on As in five sampling sites (H34, H35, H36, H37 and H82) in Jiaozhou Bay waters was conducted by North China Sea Environmental Monitoring Center in May, September and October 1983 (Fig. 1). The investigation and measurement of As were follow by National 4th International Conference on Mechatronics, Materials, Chemistry and Computer Engineering (ICMMCCE 2015) © 2015. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 1761 Specification for Marine Monitoring [6]. Fig.1 Geographic location and sampling sites of Jiaozhou Bay Results and discussion