A 100 year sedimentary record of heavy metal pollution in a shallow eutrophic lake, Lake Chaohu, China

Abstract

This study has worked on the evaluation of the temporal and spatial evolution of heavy metal contamination in sediment taken from a shallow eutrophic lake, Lake Chaohu, China, over the last 100 years, and thereby used ¹³⁷Cs and ²¹⁰Pb dating, a PIRLA procedure, statistical analysis, geochemical normalization and a enrichment factor calculation (EF). Concentrations of 5174, 29 325, 10.7, 36.4, 20.4, 386.0, 21.1 and 38.4 mg kg⁻¹ for Ti, Fe, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Pb and Zn, respectively, are proposed as natural background values for the Lake Chaohu based on a PIRLA procedure. The contamination history from the last 100 years can be divided into two periods. Before the 1960s, heavy metal contamination did not occur and there was no spatial difference for heavy metal distribution. Since the 1960s, heavy metal enrichment and contamination has occurred, and the west half of the lake region showed a higher degree of contamination than the east half to various intensified anthropogenic activities. In the east half of the lake region, the anthropogenic source of heavy metals mainly originated from agricultural intensification, whereas in the west half of the lake it originated from city runoff and industry as well as agriculture. In all anthropogenic heavy metals, Co is only from industry.