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Table of contents (10 chapters)
Keywords
About this book
In addition, four aspects make the Scheldt estuary very unusual and different from other estuaries:
- the Scheldt is a tide-governed estuary which means larger residence times;
- the upper estuary receives large inputs of biodegradable organic matter which leads to oxygen depletion in winter and to anoxic conditions in summer;
- inputs of toxic pollutants occur in the upper estuary by the industrial park of Antwerp;
- the anoxic zone, the zone of pollutant input and the zone of the turbidity maximum coincide geographically.
The Scheldt estuary is thus an ideal field laboratory for the study of biogeochemical processes which do not occur elsewhere, or only partially, to a very low extent or in a specific compartment, i.e. the sediments. More specifically, redox processes involving trace metals, the formation of non-labile metal complexes, and the methylation of mercury occur as a result of anoxic conditions and the high load of organic matter. Several models describing indetail the transport, the sedimentation and the speciation of the trace metals in this well-mixed estuary (all major estuaries in EC countries adjacent to the North Sea or the Atlantic Ocean are well-mixed) are presented in this book. A comparison of the metal concentrations over a 15-year period shows a net reduction of the pollution level.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Trace Metals in the Westerschelde Estuary: A Case-Study of a Polluted, Partially Anoxic Estuary
Editors: Willy F. J. Baeyens
Series Title: Developments in Hydrobiology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-017-3573-5
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
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eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 1998
Hardcover ISBN: 978-0-7923-5158-0Published: 30 September 1998
Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-5062-5Published: 18 December 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-94-017-3573-5Published: 17 April 2013
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVI, 167
Number of Illustrations: 90 b/w illustrations, 10 illustrations in colour
Topics: Geochemistry, Ecology, Hydrogeology, Waste Water Technology / Water Pollution Control / Water Management / Aquatic Pollution, Oceanography