Comparison of sediment metal:aluminum relationships between the eastern and gulf coasts of the United States

Aluminum is often used as a conservative tracer toseparate natural from anthropogenic components ofmetal contamination in marine sediments, butidentifying uncontaminated sites to develop baselinemetal:aluminum relationships can be problematic inpopulated areas. Here we present a new method foridenti...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental monitoring and assessment 2000-04, Vol.61 (3), p.373-385
Main Authors: WEISBERG, S. B, WILSON, H. T, HEIMBUCH, D. G, WINDOM, H. L, SUMMERS, J. K
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Aluminum
Analysis methods
Anthropogenic factors
Applied sciences
Coasts
Earth sciences
Earth, ocean, space
Engineering and environment geology. Geothermics
Environmental monitoring
Exact sciences and technology
Laboratories
Marine pollution
Marine sediments
Mean square errors
Pollution
Pollution, environment geology
Sediments
Soil and sediments pollution
Trace metals
USA
USA, Gulf Coast
USA, Mid-Atlantic Region
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Summary:Aluminum is often used as a conservative tracer toseparate natural from anthropogenic components ofmetal contamination in marine sediments, butidentifying uncontaminated sites to develop baselinemetal:aluminum relationships can be problematic inpopulated areas. Here we present a new method foridentifying baseline relationships in high populationdensity areas. The method involves comparing theresidual from the metal:aluminum regression with anindependent estimate of laboratory measurement error,based on the premise that mean square error from theregression must equal laboratory measurement error forany data set that is free of anthropogenicallyenriched sites. The method is applied to data setsfrom the mid-Atlantic and Gulf coasts of the UnitedStates to test consistency in baseline relationshipsbetween these two coasts of geologically differentorigin. Differences in metal:aluminum relationshipsbetween coasts were found to be small and limited tothe least abundant trace metals.[PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0167-6369
1573-2959
DOI:10.1023/A:1006113631027