Elemental characteristics of surface suspended particulates off the Changjiang estuary during the 1998 flood

Abstract

Surface suspended particulate matter (SPM) samples were collected on two latitudinal transects over the Changjiang estuary, covering a wide salinity regime from 8 to 30‰, instantaneously after the largest Changjiang flood peak in August 1998 that caused severe disaster in China. They have been analyzed for 20 major and trace elements and 7 rare earth elements (REEs) using ICP-MS. The SPM concentrations varied a very wide range of up to two orders of magnitude, sharply decreasing southward from 18 mg/l in the Changjiang river mouth to less than 1 mg/l at around 28°N, which may be representative of a background in the East China Sea (ECS) shelf. All selected particulate elements exhibit large variability in space. SPM collected around the Changjiang river mouth was dominated by the lithogenic components approximately accounting for 80% or more of the bulk, and when going south the proportions decreased to less than half of the total. Based on the results of enrichment factor (EF) calculation, elements Fe, Ti, Mn, Ba, Sr, Co, Be, Tl, Nb, V, Ni, and Mo with mean EF values of less than 3 were categorized into the unpolluted group, and elements Zn, Cu, Pb, As, Ag, and Sb with EF values of higher than 5 into the polluted group. This investigation demonstrated that anthropogenic metals could be dispersed over a large extent along the Chinese coast and on the ECS shelf although a majority of terrigenous sediments would be deposited within the Changjiang estuary. Additionally, our study reveals that the Qiantangjiang might contribute non-negligible pollutants to Hangzhou Bay. We therefore argue that the study area has been in moderate pollution, different from most of previous suggestions. Overall, most samples have similar chondrite- and especially UCC-normalized distribution patterns (UCC: upper continental crust); the sample/UCC ratios of REEs generally vary within a factor of 3 and display a flat (or slightly convex) pattern, essentially revealing little fractionation for particulate REEs. We estimated the import fluxes of particulate metals to the Changjiang estuary during the flood period; our results highlight the significance when compared to the annual fluxes. The study provides an informative data set with respect to SPM compositions in the Changjiang estuary during a catastrophic flood for assessing environmental changes in the future after the Three-Gorges Dam's operation and when the Yangtze Valley is going to be more industrialized and urbanized.