This paper discusses approaches to estimating the transport of river-derived trace metals through coastal areas, taking account of particle-water exchanges and remobilization from sediments. Models of the transport of several trace metals through a semi-enclosed marginal sea and across western North Atlantic continental shelves are used to examine the fluxes of metals through the coastal zone. The relationships between metals and salinity, in both nearshore and offshore areas, are also used to exemplify the consequences of mixing processes in estuaries and to determine apparent riverine end-member compositions on larger spatial scales. Comparisons are then made between the riverine influxes to the ocean deduced from metal-salinity relationships and generalized coastal zone transport models. The results of the application of both approaches are discussed in the context of geochemical processes operating in the coastal zone.