Biogeochemistry, grain size and mineralogy of the central and southern Adriatic Sea sediments: a review

Abstract

This review aims to present the current status of studies on geochemical (major minor and trace elements), biochemical (total organic carbon, total nitrogen, isotopic carbon composition, Bacteria, Archaea, phytopigments, proteins, carbohydrates, lipids, humic and fulvic acids), mineralogical (light and heavy minerals, clay minerals) and pollutant (trace metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, polychlorinated biphenyls, pesticides, organic stannic compounds) parameters, grain-size composition and sediment–water interactions (early diagenesis and benthic fluxes) for the bottom sediments of the central and southern Adriatic Sea. The review highlighted gaps in or completeness of the parameters needed for research, of areas in which the parameters were investigated, as well as the interdisciplinary nature of the studies. In general, biogeochemical, mineralogical, grain-size and pollutant studies in the central and southern Adriatic Sea are restricted to limited areas, consider only single parameters without an interdisciplinary approach and, except for some more recent projects, are predominatly out of date. On the whole, there is a lack of an organised study concerning the various parameters for the entire central and southern Adriatic Sea and their evolution over time.

Keywords:

• biogeochemistry
• mineralogy
• grain size
• pollutants
• superficial sediment
• Adriatic Sea

Acknowledgements

The authors want to thank Mattia Betti and Pierluigi Penna who participated in the recovering and analyses of samples of the ‘International scientific and technological agreement between Italy and Albania’ and also a great thank goes to Ms Catherine Eynard who gave a fundamental help in the Italian–English translation of the paper and to the anonymous reviewer who gave the useful and fundamental suggestion for the publication of the paper.