Anthropogenic contributions to heavy metal distributions in the surface sediments of Masan Bay, Korea

摘要

Industrial and urban activities in coastal regions commonly introduce major amounts of pollutants into the nearby marine environment. The sediments in these areas are influenced primarily by the local geology, but can also reflect anthropogenic discharge from neighboring areas that contribute concentrations of both organic matter and heavy metals (Foerstner and Wittman, 1981; Salomons and Forstner, 1984; Haynes et al., 1995). However, post-depositional remobilization of these metals can make it difficult to determine the proportions of metal concentrations attributable to anthropogenic contributions (Gobeil and Cossa, 1993; Spencer et al., 2003). Therefore, multidis-ciplinary analyses of surface sediments are necessary to distinguish among differing inputs arising from anthropogenic pollution and environmental changes (Lee et al., 1998; Owen and Sandhu, 2000; Rubio et al., 2000; Soto-Jimenes et al., 2003; Mora et al., 2004; Hyun et al., 2006).