Publication details
Možnosti hodnocení zatížení říčních sedimentů stopovými prvky na příkladu řeky Svratky a jejích přítoků
| Title in English | Possibilities of evaluation of trace element loading of river sediments on the example of the Svratka River and its tributaries |
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| Authors | |
| Year of publication | 2021 |
| Type | Article in Periodical |
| Magazine / Source | Geoscience Research Reports |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Web | https://app.geology.cz/img/zpravyvyzkum/fulltext/zpravy.geol.2022.02.pdf |
| Doi | http://dx.doi.org/10.3140/zpravy.geol.2021.13 |
| Keywords | natural geochemical background; enrichment factor; trace elements; river sediment; Svratka River |
| Description | Most methods of evaluating river system contamination use an enrichment factor, but there is no consensus concerning the specific values of the natural geochemical background to be. This is critical for evaluation of the anthropogenic loading. Taking into account that the final evaluation is strongly dependent on the choice of this parameter, the aim of the paper is to show the importance of the choice of the natural background in assessing the pollution degree of river sediments. Element concentrations of the surrounding rocks are considered to be the natural geochemical background. The Svratka River springs in the Ž?árské vrchy Highlands. It flows through crystalline rocks in upstream, and further then through metamorphic volcanic rocks, sediments of the Boskovice furrow and plutonic rocks of the Brno Massif. Further on, it flows through a straight watercourse over the plain of the Dyje-Svratka deep valley, and the downstream flows through Miocene sediments of the Carpathian foredeep and flysch units of the Western Carpathians (Fig. 1). 24 samples of river sediments were taken from the Svratka River and its tributaries (Fig. 1). The samples were decomposed in a solution of 1 ml HF (40%) and 3 ml HNO3 (65%). The Al, Ti and As contents were determined by AAS, the Pb, Zr contents were determined by FAAS, and Cr and Ni element contents were determined by ICP-MS (Table 2). The Enrichment Factor (EF) was calculated for each sample using Al, Ti and Zr as reference elements and recommended concentration of the natural background values in Table 1. The resulting EF values are very different (Fig. 2a, b). The results of the statistical processing for lead, arsenic, nickel and chromium (Fig. 3a–d) using the reference elements titanium, aluminium and zirconium demonstrated that the choice of the reference element is not the main factor that significantly influences the final evaluation. The choice of the appropriate natural geochemical background value is absolutely crucial for the evaluation of the anthropogenic loading. |