| Project Title |  |
| Evaluation of metal
stratigraphy in marine sediments as a record of atmospheric deposition of metals.
|
|
| Research Team | |
| John N. Smith,
Department of Fisheries & Oceans, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Nova Scotia. P.I.
Email: SmithJN@mar.dfo-mpo.gc.ca
|
|
| Project Summary | |
| Rationale: The history of anthropogenic
inputs of metals to the environment, from both atmospheric inputs and direct effluent
releases from industrial outfalls, is recorded in fine detail in the unmixed, high
depositional sediment regime of the upper arm of the Saguenay Fjord, Québec. A drainage
basin model has been developed which permits the deconvolution of the atmospheric and
direct effluent components of the overall sediment contaminant flux. These various models
can be coupled together to identify metal source terms, determine the relative magnitudes
of the anthropogenic and natural metals fluxes and estimate metal residence times in both
the water column and soil compartments of the drainage basin. The results for the Saguenay
River drainage basis can be scaled to other watersheds using relatively simple
geomorphological parameters pertaining to the size and nature of the drainage basin and an
accurate knowledge of the socio-industrial characteristics of the systems. Our 1998-99 research objectives is to undertake Hg and radionuclide measurements in a core collected from the upper arm of the Saguenay Fjord in 1997 in order to estimate the geochronology for Hg transport through the Saguenay drainage basin.
|
|