Grantee Research Project Results
Final Report: The Fate of Particle-Reactive Contaminants in Shallow Coastal Environments
EPA Grant Number: R827785E03Title: The Fate of Particle-Reactive Contaminants in Shallow Coastal Environments
Investigators: McKee, Brent , Powell, Rodney
Institution: Tulane University , Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium
EPA Project Officer: Chung, Serena
Project Period: March 17, 2002 through March 16, 2003
RFA: EPSCoR (Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research) (1999) RFA Text | Recipients Lists
Research Category: EPSCoR (The Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research)
Objective:
The objective of this research project was to integrate information obtained from physical, geochemical, and remote-sensing measurements to better understand the fate of particle-reactive contaminants in a shallow coastal environment: Lake Pontchartrain, LA. The contaminants examined (e.g., Cu, Cr, Mo, Zn, Pb, U, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) represent a spectrum of pollutants that enter the coastal zone primarily as particulates (i.e., contaminated sediments). We examined the fate of these contaminants on daily, monthly seasonal, and decadal timescales.
Summary/Accomplishments (Outputs/Outcomes):
Results include successful collection of monthly cores for the past year. These include cores and water column samples collected as well as samples from the auto sampler interfaced with the platform monitoring instruments, and precipitation samples from an atmospheric deposition collector. Analyses of all 18 months of sample collection are complete, and one manuscript has been published and three national presentations have been given, which included the results to date. These presentations are listed in the Publications/Presentations section below.
The results of our intensive 18-month sampling program indicate that the net result of resuspension in environments such as Lake Pontchartrain is to liberate contaminants that enter the system bound to particles. Resuspension appears to greatly enhance the diagenetic cycling of metal contaminants, resulting in a release of metals from the particulate phase into dissolved/colloidal phases that are 5-8 times faster than in undisturbed (nonresuspended) environments. The difference appears to be attributable to enhanced reaction rates within the porewater-seabed setting (resulting in reductive dissolution of carrier phases such as Fe, MN, and organic matter) and more effective transport of diagenetic products from the seabed into overlying lake waters (advective transport, which is two orders of magnitude more rapid than diffusive flux). The final results indicate that if the frequency of resuspension is known (through wind-driven models of excess shear bed stress), then there is a strong possibility that the degree of remobilization could be modeled and predicted.
Currently, we are working on three preliminary manuscripts that will be completed shortly after the sample analyses are complete. Submissions of two manuscripts are anticipated in the spring of 2004, and a third in the summer of 2004.
Journal Articles on this Report : 3 Displayed | Download in RIS Format
| Other project views: | All 11 publications | 4 publications in selected types | All 3 journal articles |
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Hanrahan G, Powell R, McKee B, Kozlowski G. The role of storm-driven events on porewater nutrient fluxes in a shallow estuarine system: Lake Pontchartrain, USA. Marine Chemistry. |
R827785E03 (Final) |
not available |
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Kozlowski GJ, Powell RT, McKee BA, Wilson-Finelli A, Duncan DA. The effects of wind-driven resuspension events on the flux of metals across the sediment-water interface in a shallow estuarine environment, Lake Pontchartrain, LA. Eos, Transactions, American Geophysical Union 2002, Vol. 83, No. 47, p. F695. |
R827785E03 (Final) |
not available |
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Kozlowski GJ, McKee BA, Powell RT. Rates of redox driven process in a shallow, estuarine environment. Estuaries On The Edge:17th Biennial Conference Of The Estuarine Research Federation At Seattle, Washington, September 14-18. 2003;:F695. |
R827785E03 (Final) |
not available |
Supplemental Keywords:
monitoring, contaminants, Lake Pontchartrain, aquatic ecosystems, coastal ecosystems, ecological impact, ecological research, ecology assessment models, ecosystem stress, environmental stress, fate and transport, heavy metals, hydrology, integrated watershed model, particle reactive contaminants, restoration strategies, sediment transport, source load modeling, water circulation, watershed influences, watershed management, watershed restoration., RFA, Ecosystem Protection/Environmental Exposure & Risk, Scientific Discipline, INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION, Water, Waste, ECOSYSTEMS, POLLUTANTS/TOXICS, Aquatic Ecosystem, Restoration, Aquatic Ecosystems & Estuarine Research, Fate & Transport, Terrestrial Ecosystems, Aquatic Ecosystem Restoration, Watersheds, Monitoring/Modeling, Environmental Microbiology, Biochemistry, Chemicals, Water & Watershed, Ecology and Ecosystems, watershed management, heavy metals, ecological impact, restoration strategies, watershed restoration, coastal ecosystems, watershed influences, hydrology, Lake Pontchartrain, fate and transport, ecosystem stress, environmental stress, sediment transport, integrated watershed model, water circulation, ecology assessment models, ecological research, aquatic ecosystems, source load modeling, watershed sustainablilityRelevant Websites:
http://weather.lumcon.edu/ Exit
The perspectives, information and conclusions conveyed in research project abstracts, progress reports, final reports, journal abstracts and journal publications convey the viewpoints of the principal investigator and may not represent the views and policies of ORD and EPA. Conclusions drawn by the principal investigators have not been reviewed by the Agency.