title: Anthropogenic metal contamination and sapropel imprints in deep Mediterranean sediments.
abstract: Sediment cores from the deep Balearic basin and the Cretan Sea provide evidence for the accumulation of Cd, Pd and Zn in the top few centimeters of the abyssal Mediterranean sea-bottom. In both cores, 206Pb/207Pb profiles confirm this anthropogenic impact with less radiogenic imprints toward surface sediments. The similarity between excess 210Pb accumulated in the top core and the 210Pb flux suggests that top core metal inventories reasonably reflect long-term atmospheric deposition to the open Mediterranean. Pb inventory in the western core for the past 100 years represents 20-30% of sediment coastal inventories, suggesting that long-term atmospheric deposition determined from coastal areas has to be used cautiously for mass balance calculations in the open Mediterranean. In the deeper section of both cores, Al normalized trace metal profiles suggest diagenetic remobilization of Fe, Mn, Cu and, to a lesser extent, Pb that likely corresponds to sapropel event S1.
authors.affiliation: Department of Environment, University of the Aegean, Lofos Panepistimiou, 81100 Mytilene, Greece. angelidis@unepmap.gr
authors.forename: M O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Angelidis
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Radakovitch
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Veron
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Aloupi
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Heussner
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Price
mesh_terms: D001578:Benzopyrans / Q000032:analysis*; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D019015:Geologic Sediments / Q000737:chemistry*; D006812:Humic Substances / Q000032:analysis*; D007856:Lead Radioisotopes / Q000032:analysis; D008522:Mediterranean Sea; D008670:Metals / Q000032:analysis*; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical / Q000032:analysis*; D014877:Water Pollution, Chemical / Q000706:statistics & numerical data
chemical_list: D001578:Benzopyrans; D006812:Humic Substances; D007856:Lead Radioisotopes; D008670:Metals; D014874:Water Pollutants, Chemical; C050488:sapropel