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Sources and timing of anthropogenic pollution in the Ensenada de San Simon (inner Ria de Vigo), Galicia, NW Spain: an application of mixture-modelling and nonlinear optimization to recent sedimentation

Sources and timing of anthropogenic pollution in the Ensenada de San Simon (inner Ria de Vigo), Galicia, NW Spain: an application of mixture-modelling and nonlinear optimization to recent sedimentation
Sources and timing of anthropogenic pollution in the Ensenada de San Simon (inner Ria de Vigo), Galicia, NW Spain: an application of mixture-modelling and nonlinear optimization to recent sedimentation
The Ensenada de San Simón is the inner part of the Ría de Vigo, one of the major mesotidal rías of the Galician coast, NW Spain. The geochemistry of its bottom sediments can be accounted for in terms of both natural and anthropogenic sources. Mixture-modelling enables much of the Cr, Ni, V, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations of the bottom and subaqueous sediments to be explained by sediment input from the river systems and faecal matter from manmade mussel rafts. The compositions and relative contributions of additional, unknown, sources of anomalous heavy-metal concentrations are quantified using constrained nonlinear optimization. The pattern of metal enrichment is attributed to: material carried in solution and suspension in marine water entering the Ensenada from the polluted industrial areas of the adjacent Ría de Vigo; wind-borne urban dusts and/or vehicular emissions from the surrounding network of roads and a motorway road-bridge over the Estrecho de Rande; industrial and agricultural pollution from the R. Redondela; and waste from a former ceramics factory near the mouth of the combined R. Oitabén and R. Verdugo. Using 137Cs dating, it is suggested that heavy metal build-up in the sediments since the late 1970s followed development of inshore fisheries and introduction of the mussel rafts (ca. 1960) and increasing industrialisation.
subaqueous sediments, Ensenada de San Simon, Ría de Vigo, NW Spain, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, V, Zn, anthropogenic pollution, mussel rafts, urban dusts, highway dusts, mixture-modelling, nonlinear optimization, 137Cs dating
0048-9697
149-176
Howarth, R.J.
e88467a8-0195-4b4c-b096-df846a52d252
Evans, G.
e5f4d450-de59-4812-88d2-31033b6f5cce
Croudace, I.W.
24deb068-d096-485e-8a23-a32b7a68afaf
Cundy, A.B.
994fdc96-2dce-40f4-b74b-dc638286eb08
Howarth, R.J.
e88467a8-0195-4b4c-b096-df846a52d252
Evans, G.
e5f4d450-de59-4812-88d2-31033b6f5cce
Croudace, I.W.
24deb068-d096-485e-8a23-a32b7a68afaf
Cundy, A.B.
994fdc96-2dce-40f4-b74b-dc638286eb08

Howarth, R.J., Evans, G., Croudace, I.W. and Cundy, A.B. (2005) Sources and timing of anthropogenic pollution in the Ensenada de San Simon (inner Ria de Vigo), Galicia, NW Spain: an application of mixture-modelling and nonlinear optimization to recent sedimentation. Science of the Total Environment, 340 (1-3), 149-176. (doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2004.08.001).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The Ensenada de San Simón is the inner part of the Ría de Vigo, one of the major mesotidal rías of the Galician coast, NW Spain. The geochemistry of its bottom sediments can be accounted for in terms of both natural and anthropogenic sources. Mixture-modelling enables much of the Cr, Ni, V, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations of the bottom and subaqueous sediments to be explained by sediment input from the river systems and faecal matter from manmade mussel rafts. The compositions and relative contributions of additional, unknown, sources of anomalous heavy-metal concentrations are quantified using constrained nonlinear optimization. The pattern of metal enrichment is attributed to: material carried in solution and suspension in marine water entering the Ensenada from the polluted industrial areas of the adjacent Ría de Vigo; wind-borne urban dusts and/or vehicular emissions from the surrounding network of roads and a motorway road-bridge over the Estrecho de Rande; industrial and agricultural pollution from the R. Redondela; and waste from a former ceramics factory near the mouth of the combined R. Oitabén and R. Verdugo. Using 137Cs dating, it is suggested that heavy metal build-up in the sediments since the late 1970s followed development of inshore fisheries and introduction of the mussel rafts (ca. 1960) and increasing industrialisation.

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More information

Published date: 2005
Keywords: subaqueous sediments, Ensenada de San Simon, Ría de Vigo, NW Spain, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, V, Zn, anthropogenic pollution, mussel rafts, urban dusts, highway dusts, mixture-modelling, nonlinear optimization, 137Cs dating

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 23997
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/23997
ISSN: 0048-9697
PURE UUID: e32957c7-b875-45c7-9413-5be0cb382269
ORCID for A.B. Cundy: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-4368-2569

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 17 Mar 2006
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 04:21

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Contributors

Author: R.J. Howarth
Author: G. Evans
Author: I.W. Croudace
Author: A.B. Cundy ORCID iD

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