We investigated the particle size distribution of radiocesium in riverbed sediments after the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant accident. Riverbed sediments were collected in the Abukuma River system in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures. The collected sediments were separated into 11 fractions, ranging from granular size (>2000 μm) to clay size (<2 μm) fractions. Cesium-137 concentrations we...

Shallow-water hydrothermal vent systems can introduce large amounts of potentially toxic elements, such as arsenic (As), into coastal marine environments. The first step in understanding and describing the potential impact of these elements throughout hydrothermally influenced coastal ecosystems is to determine the element’s distribution and speciation, which in turn influences the availability...

The sources and historical deposition of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) were investigated in dated sediment cores from the Pichavaram mangrove-estuarine complex. The ΣPAH flux in mangrove and estuarine sediments are 0.064 ± 0.031 μg/cm 2 /yr and 0.043 ± 0.020 μg/cm 2 /yr, respectively. The PAH flux in sediments increases up-core coinciding with rapid urbanization since the 1970s. Th...

Sedimentary microorganisms can be used as a sensitive indicator of integrated aquatic environment quality assessment and indicate long-term water quality or toxicity. According to the Chinese National Standards of GB 3838-2002 and GB 18918-2002, the comprehensive water quality in Haihe River Basin has been described. Results showed that the comprehensive water quality in 6 sites, 4 sites, and 2...

Factors affecting the transport and retention of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in acidic groundwaters as they pass through estuarine sediments were investigated using column experiments. Acidic groundwaters caused the rapid dissolution of iron sulfide (AVS) and other iron and manganese phases from sediments that are important for metal binding and buffering. Metal breakthrough to overlying water oc...

In marine environments, macrofauna living in or on the sediment surface may alter the structure, diversity and function of benthic microbial communities. In particular, microbial nitrogen (N)-cycling processes may be enhanced by the activity of large bioturbating organisms. Here, we study the effect of the burrowing mud shrimp Upogebia deltaura upon temporal variation in the abundance of genes ...

IIlite clay particles with adsorbed 137Cs were added as a submillimeter layer to the surface of stir-clay sediments contained in rectangular Plexiglas ceils stored in a temperature-regulated aquarium, in order to tmee the effect of the ollgochaete, Tubifex tubifex, and the amphipod, Pontoporeia hoyi, on mass redistribution near the sedimentwater interface. A well-collimated NaI gamma detector s...