Abstract
Marine environment contamination by trace metals has received increased global attention during recent years. Presently it is widely recognized that marine ecosystem can become contaminated by trace metals from numerous and diverse sources. However, anthropogenic activities, such as mining and industrial processing of ores and metals, still remain the principal cause of the increased amount of heavy metals which have been dumped into oceans. After entering the aquatic environment trace metals are distributed among water, biotic and sediment compartments, this latter serving as a final sink for metal pollutants. The magnitude of this scavenging action of sediments depends on the physical, chemical and biological properties of the sediments. Concentrations of trace metals in sediments are usually of a greater magnitude order than concentrations in water. Sediments were considered as an important indicator for environmental pollution, they act as permanent or temporary traps for material spread into the environment. The purpose of this study was to determine the grain size effect on the copper, cadmium and zinc levels distribution in surface marine sediments along the Chilean Coast. 18 refs., 1 fig., 1 tab.
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