Distribution of Heavy Metals in the Surface Sediments and Mussels(Mytilus edulis) around Tongyeong, Korea

Abstract

Surface sediments and mussels were collected from 22 sites and 20 sites from Tongyeong marine ranching area(TMRA), respectively. The samples were analyzed 7 metals(Al, Cr, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb, and Hg) in order to assess the heavy metal pollution. Heavy metal concentrations in the sediments were high in the northwestern parts of the study area and the coast of Miryuk island. Heavy metal concentrations are well correlated to Al concentrations. The facts indicates that heavy metals in the surface sediments in the study area were mainly controlled by the grain size. Cd and Hg in the sediments never exceeded the ERL values. On the other hand, the Cr concentrations of 16 sites exceeded the ERL value, The Cu concentration of 7 sites exceeded the ERL value, The highest concentrations of heavy metals are observed at St. 1, which exceeded the ERL values of Cr, Cu, Zn and Pb. Elevated concentrations of heavy metals in the mussels were shown at Sts. 3, 15 and 20. In this study, Cd concentrations were highly related to Zn and also to Hg(R>0.6). Close relationship(R=0.842) was found between Cu and Pb. compared with other data from domestic country, Cr, Zn and Cd concentrations of this study are relatively low. The maximum concentrations of heavy metals(Cr, Pb, and Hg) are lower than the criteria of Korea, Australia and EU.2