Searching for order in chaos: a sediment stratigraphical study of a multiple-impacted bay of the Baltic Sea

Abstract

The lithological and geochemical properties of sediment cores collected from a heavily impacted embayment in the Gulf of Finland, Baltic Sea, were investigated. Hillonlahti Bay has been the focus of much human activity, including timber and oil industries, transportation, housing, dredging and waste discharge, thus constituting an exceptionally challenging environment for sediment studies. A total of nine cores were sampled along perpendicular transects across the elongated bay, and described lithologically in the field. Major and trace element concentrations were determined for a “master core” taken from the central area of the bay. The vertical distribution of 210Pb, 137Cs and spheroidal carbonaceous particles (SCP) was also examined in order to provide a chronological framework for the sediment. Changes in the sediment nature and differences in the distributions of soluble heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, V, Zn), lithophilous (Al, Ti, K, Mg, Ca, Na), redox-sensitive (Fe, Mn), and nutrient (TP) elementary concentrations were related to temporal and spatial processes. These include the building of the Hamina port starting in the mid-1930s, establishment of the timber and oil industry in 1950–1960s, construction of railway embankments in 1950 and 1996, increasing urbanisation from 1960s, and wastewater discharge between 1950 and 1987. The use of Cr as a preservative in the wood processing industry is reflected in the marked enrichment of Cr in the sediment, while the influence of wastewater discharge can be seen in the sediment record by a rise in concentrations of P and evidently organically bound Na, Cu and Zn. The results are encouraging in demonstrating that via a rather simple repertoire of sediment-analytical methods it is possible to obtain information about the land-use history and contamination in such a strongly rampaged system.