Distribution of heavy metals in marine sediments at the ocean waste disposal site in the Yellow Sea, South Korea

摘要

We attempted to evaluate variations in the properties of sediments at a waste disposal site in the Yellow Sea resulting from the last 17 years of ocean dumping. The comparison between the affected surface sediment by ocean dumping and unaffected bottom sediment properties revealed that the mean grain size, Loss on ignition (LOI), and mineralogy were only slightly influenced by the ocean dumping, while some stations in the study area exhibited a heavy metal anomaly. Enrichment of heavy metals also has influenced inflow of waste since 1994 and rapidly increased after 1999, and the heavy metals in the surface sediment were controlled by anthropogenic sources such as ocean dumping, while the heavy metals in the bottom sediment were controlled by the weathering process. Also, Metal enrichment in the study area may have been caused by ocean dumping, because the time of heavy metal enrichment corresponds to the increasing time of ocean dumping. Furthermore, enrichment factor and geoaccumulation index suggested that the concentrations of heavy metals besides Cd and Pb were not significant, but the sediment accumulated after 1994 at some sites exhibited Pb and Cd anomalies.