Heavy‐metal pollution in surficial sediments from the Southern Baltic sea off Poland

Abstract

The Gulf of Gdańsk is one of the pollution “hot spots”; of the Baltic Sea. In order to investigate heavy‐metal pollution there, 31 bulk (<2 mm), surficial sediments from the Gulf of Gdańsk and the southern Baltic Sea were analyzed for 20 elements. Cobalt, Ni, Cs, Rb, Fe, Mg, Li, and K covary with Al and display an enrichment factor EF_Al ^M of about one, indicating that these elements occur in the sediments dominantly in the clay mineral fraction. Zinc, Cd, Pb, and Ag display an enrichment factor much greater than one and are thought to be dominantly anthropogenic in origin. Grain size plays a significant role in determining element concentrations within the sediments. Systematic trends in the distribution of the heavy metals away from the mouth of the Vistula River were therefore not observed in bulk sediments. However, R‐mode factor analysis discriminated between sediments taken from near the mouths of the Vistula and Reda Rivers and the other sediments and indicated that sediments from near the mouths of those rivers are the most polluted with heavy metals. Present evidence suggests that the heavy metals are introduced into marine sediments in part from atmospheric sources.