Distribution of Heavy Metal and PCB Contaminants in the Sediments of an urban Estuary: The Hudson River

摘要

Surficial sediments obtained from sediment cores were collected over 100 km along the axis of the lower Hudson River in June 1994, November 1994, May 1995 and April 1996 and showed the presence of anthropogenic Ag, Cd, Pb, Zn, PCBs in all samples. Contaminant distributions in the Hudson River estuary show two types of trends: Ag, Cu and Pb show an increasing trend down-estuary with maximum values in New York Harbor sediments; in contrast, Cd, Zn and total PCBs display a decreasing trend toward New York Harbor where urban sources are also apparent.