Trace Metals in Surface Sediments of St. Clair River and Lake St. Clair, Michigan

Environmental;Lake St. Clair;St. Clair River;Sediment;Trace metals;Biolog ecoplate;Environmental Science;College of Arts;Sciences and Letters;Environmental Science, College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters

Alsaffar, Ali H.Deng, Yiwei ;

University of Michigan

关键词: Environmental;    Lake St. Clair;    St. Clair River;    Sediment;    Trace metals;    Biolog ecoplate;    Environmental Science;    College of Arts;    Sciences and Letters;    Environmental Science, College of Arts, Sciences, and Letters;   

Others  :  https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/136198/Trace%20Metals%20in%20Surface%20Sediments%20of%20St.%20Clair%20River%20and%20Lake%20St.%20Clair%2c%20Michigan-Final.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

瑞士|英语

来源: The Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship

【 摘 要 】

St. Clair River and Lake St. Clair form the waterway connecting channel from LakeHuron to the Detroit River then drains into Lake Erie. They provide water supply for millions ofpeople, and critical habitat for maintaining biodiversity in the aquatic environment. Previousstudies reported that the contamination level in St. Clair River and Lake St. Clair sedimentsexceeded the allowable limits, and designated the connecting channels as Areas of Concern.Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the trace metal concentrations (Ag, As, Ba, Cd,Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Hg, Ni, Pb, Se, and Zn) and physico-chemical properties (grain size, total solids,specific gravity, density, COD, volatile solids, and TOC) in the sediments of St. Clair River andLake St. Clair. Sediments were collected from seven sampling locations of St. Clair River in2009 and nineteen sampling locations of Lake St. Clair in 2010. To characterize the seasonalvariation of the metabolic activities of heterotrophic microorganisms in the sediments, additionalsamples were collected from six locations of St. Clair River and Lake St. Clair in spring,summer, fall and winter of 2015. The analytical results indicated that the metal concentrationswere unevenly distributed on the river and lake bottoms. The metal concentrations of St. ClairRiver sediments were lower than Lake St. Clair sediments, due to the fact that rivers such as St.Clair River, are lotic ecosystems and characterized by rapidly moving freshwater. Therefore,rivers do not accumulate much of the metals in the sediments but transport the metals to lakeswhere the metals concentrate. Nonetheless, the metal concentrations in sediment of the studywere below the allowable regulatory limits. Comparison of metal concentrations of this studywith other connecting lakes and rivers led to the conclusion that the Clinton River and RougeRiver appears to be the source of contamination, and the anthropogenic factors dominated theprocess regulating the metal distributions within the study area. The Biolog Ecoplate assayshowed that differences in heterotrophic growth and metabolic diversity between the twoecosystems were slightly significant, but the differences were more significant between sites within each ecosystem. This is likely a result of differences in sediment texture betweenlocations and seasonal changes.