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Speciation and Mobility of Selected Trace Metals (As, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn) in Sediment with Depth in Cam River-Mouth, Haiphong, Vietnam

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Abstract

The speciation and mobility of some selected trace metals (As, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn) in sediments with depth was investigated in the Cam River-mouth (Vietnam) by collecting sediment cores and analysing porewater and sediment composition, complemented with single (ammonium-EDTA) and sequential (BCR 3-step) extractions and mineralogical analysis (XRD). All trace metals show overall decreasing trends with depth in porewater as a result of anthropogenic input in upper sediment layers. High porewater concentrations of As, Mn and Pb in oxic and suboxic sediment layers may result in groundwater pollution. Sediment-bound Pb and Mn dominate in the reducible and the acid-soluble fraction, respectively, while Cu and Zn distribute rather evenly between four extracted fractions. The porewater metal speciation, as predicted by a geochemical model Visual MINTEQ version 3.0, indicates that the toxicity of Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn (presented by the proportions of free metal ions) decreases with depth, while the toxicity of As increases when As(III) becomes more abundant. The dissolved concentrations of trace metals are not only controlled by the precipitation/dissolution of discrete hydroxide/oxide, carbonate and phosphate minerals, but also by sorption processes on major sorbents (i.e. As on goethite, and Mn and Zn on calcite and dolomite). Sulphide minerals do not show any control even in the anoxic zone most likely because of the low concentration of sulphur.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Prof. Noel Vandenberghe, Mr. Rieko Adriaens and Ms. Ria Brepoels from the Division of Applied Geology & Mineralogy (Department Earth & Environmental Sciences) for the grain-size and XRD mineralogical analyses, Prof. Erik Smolders and Dr. Bjorn Dieu from the Division of Soil and Water Management (Department Earth & Environmental Sciences) for the DOC and DIC analysis, and Dr. Solvita Ore from the Department of Chemical Engineering, Catholic University of Leuven (K.U. Leuven) who assisted us in the ICP-MS analysis. This research is supported by the Belgian Technical Cooperation (BTC) through a Ph.D. scholarship and the International Foundation for Science, Stockholm, Sweden and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, The Hague, The Netherlands, through a grant to Ho Huu Hieu.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Huu Hieu Ho, Rudy Swennen, Valérie Cappuyns & Elvira Vassilieva

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium

    Tom Van Gerven

  3. Vietnam Institute of Geosciences and Mineral Resources (VIGMR), Hanoi, Vietnam

    Huu Hieu Ho & Tan Van Tran

  4. Center for Economics and Corporate Sustainability, Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium

    Valérie Cappuyns

Authors
  1. Huu Hieu Ho
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  2. Rudy Swennen
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  3. Valérie Cappuyns
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  4. Elvira Vassilieva
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  5. Tom Van Gerven
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  6. Tan Van Tran
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Huu Hieu Ho.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 1, 2, and 3.

Table 1 Comparison between measured concentrations with certified data of BCSS-1 (marine sediment) and GBW07311 (stream sediment) in the total-elemental analysis (n = 2)
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Table 2 Comparison between measured concentrations with certified data of the reference material BCR 701 in the BCR 3-step sequential extraction (n = 2)
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Table 3 Comparison between ammonium-EDTA-extractable concentrations with certified data of the reference material CRM 483 (n = 1)
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Ho, H.H., Swennen, R., Cappuyns, V. et al. Speciation and Mobility of Selected Trace Metals (As, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn) in Sediment with Depth in Cam River-Mouth, Haiphong, Vietnam. Aquat Geochem 19, 57–75 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10498-012-9178-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10498-012-9178-z

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