Seagrass soil archives reveal centennial-scale metal smelter contamination while acting as natural filters
Lafratta, Anna (Edith Cowan University. Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research)
Serrano, Oscar (Edith Cowan University. Centre for Marine Ecosystems Research)
Masqué Barri, Pere (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Institut de Ciència i Tecnologia Ambientals)
Mateo, Miguel A. (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas. Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Blanes)
Fernandes, Milena (Flinders University. School of the Environment (Australia))
Gaylard, Sam (South Australian Environment Protection Authority (Australia))
Lavery, Paul S. (Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Cientificas. Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Blanes)

Data:	2019
Resum:	The upper Spencer Gulf in South Australia hosts the world's largest single stream Pb-Zn smelter, which has caused environmental and health issues related to elevated metal concentrations in the surrounding environment. The area also has extensive seagrass meadows, occupying >4000 km. We reconstructed the fluxes of heavy metals over the last ~3000 years through a multi-parameter study of the soil archives formed by the seagrass Posidonia australis. Pb, Zn and Cd concentrations increased up to 9-fold following the onset of smelter operations in the 1880s, and the stable Pb isotopic signatures confirmed the smelter has been the main source of lead pollution in the seagrass soils until present. Preliminary estimates suggest that over the past 15 years seagrass meadows within 70 km of the smelter accumulated ~7-15% of the smelter emissions in their soils. Here we demonstrate that seagrass meadows act as pollution filters and sinks while their soils provide a record of environmental conditions, allowing baseline conditions to be identified and revealing the time-course of environmental change.
Nota:	Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552
Drets:	Aquest document està subjecte a una llicència d'ús Creative Commons. Es permet la reproducció total o parcial, la distribució, i la comunicació pública de l'obra, sempre que no sigui amb finalitats comercials, i sempre que es reconegui l'autoria de l'obra original. No es permet la creació d'obres derivades.
Llengua:	Anglès
Document:	Article ; recerca ; Versió publicada
Matèria:	Heavy metals ; Lead isotopes ; South Australia ; Seagrass soil deposits ; Holocene ; Southern Ocean
Publicat a:	Science of the total environment, Vol. 649 (February 2019) , p. 1381-1392, ISSN 1879-1026

DOI: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2018.08.400
PMID: 30308907

12 p, 2.5 MB

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