When and where rivers meet the sea

River mouth areas provide one of the most desired locations for human habitation. Although occupying only a small portion of the total length of the world’s shoreline, river mouths are dynamic and complex with highly variable physical and chemical characteristics.The size, shape, and position of a river’s mouth are dependent on its geologic and hydrologic history. Further, the processes that operate in a river’s mouth are affected by the sea and its currents, tides, and salinity; the river and its discharge and sediment characteristics; and wind generated waves and storm surges. Present-day locations are, geologically speaking, of recent origin because of the rise in sea level that accompanied deglaciation and the sedimentation that followed drowning.     

北海半岛水体混合过程的稀土元素分布特征

选择北海半岛南流江河口、半岛近岸海域及涠洲岛附近海域为对象,研究河海水混合过程中稀土元素的某些地球化学特征。结果表明,水体中稀土元素主要以悬浮颗粒态存在,溶解态稀土含量及轻、重稀土含量之比从河流到海洋逐渐降低。溶解态稀土含量在南流江河口低盐度区因胶体絮凝而下降,在中高盐度区,颗粒物解吸或部分溶解引起含量上升;pH值对其亦有影响。溶解态稀土分布模式以重稀土相对富集为特征,在此基础上存在中稀土富集,是源区铁锰氧化物和水体中有机胶体共同作用的结果,Ce正异常与水体中有机物有关,Eu负异常是对源区岩石分布模式特征的继承。而原水中稀土含量变化相对复杂,与水动力状况有关,分布模式较为一致,表明河流颗粒物存在均一化趋势。     

Reassessment and comparison of natural radioactivity levels in relation to granulometric contents of recently excavated major river sediments

River sediment depositions on the bottom of rivers most frequently consist of sand and gravel particles, which make them particularly valuable for the building construction. Knowledge of radioactivity present in building material enables one to assess any possible radiological hazard to mankind by the use of such materials. The natural radionuclide (²³⁸U, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K) contents have been analyzed for the recently excavated sediment samples of Cauvery, Vellar, Ponnaiyar and Palaru rivers with an aim of evaluating the radiation hazard nature. To know the radiological characteristics of the sediment, the different radiological parameters are calculated. Natural radioactivity level is higher in Palaru river and it is lower in Vellar river sediments. In all the rivers, concentration of ²³⁸U is decreased, and concentrations of ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K are increased towards the river mouth. Granulometric analysis shows that the sand is the main constituent in all the river sediment samples. Content of sand is gradually decreased, and contents of silt and clay are gradually increased towards the river mouth. Cluster analysis was carried out to find the similarity level between the radioactivity and granulometric measurements. The radioactivity level of all the four river sediments mainly depends upon the contents of silt and clay. Averages of the all calculated radiation hazard indices are lower than recommended level in Cauvery, Vellar and Ponnaiyar river sediments. Therefore, the sediment of the above rivers does not pose any significant radiological threat to the population when it is used as a building construction material.     

Technetium-99 in the Rhône river water

⁹⁹Tc a pure -particle emitter with long half-life (T=2.13×10⁵ y) was measured in Rhône river water and in Mediterranean sea water near the river mouth. The values obtained in the Rhône river allowed us to show the downstream distribution of the effluents from the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant of Marcoule: the⁹⁹Tc activity which is low above the plant, 0.016 mBq 1^–1, is 0.4 mBq 1^–1 at Roquemaure, located 14 km below the plant, and then decreases as a function of distance from the plant.     

Estimation of dissolved inorganic nutrients fluxes from the Changjiang River into estuary

Because the estuary acts as either a trap or a source or both for nutrient elements and will modify greatly the riverine transport to the ocean, it is necessary to calculate the flux from river into estuary and that from estuary into sea, respectively. The present work aims to use a long-term record of nutrients concentrations and runoff discharges on H.e Datong section (625 km inland from the Changjiang River mouth) to identify the variability of nutrients concentrations and to estimate nutrients fluxes from the Changjiang River into the estuary.     

Estimation of dissolved inorganic nutrients fluxes from the Changjiang River into estuary

Because the estuary acts as either a trap or a source or both for nutrient elements and will modify greatly the riverine transport to the ocean, it is necessary to calculate the flux from river into estuary and that from estuary into sea, respectively. The present work aims to use a long-term record of nutrients concentrations and runoff discharges on H.e Datong section (625 km inland from the Changjiang River mouth) to identify the variability of nutrients concentrations and to estimate nutrients fluxes from the Changjiang River into the estuary.     

Organotins: their analysis and assessment in the Elbe river system, Northern Germany

Organotins have been analyzed using a new derivatisation technique in wet sediments by ethylation with NaBEt₄ and a GC/AAS coupling for separation and detection. In this way the Sn(IV) and the monoalkylated compounds could also be analysed more easily than by the Grignard derivatisation method used by other authors. Organotins are present not only as expected in the harbours, shipyards and the pleasure boat areas but also in the river itself, upstream of these places. Ships are thus not the only sources. An organotin production plant on the banks of a tributary, the Mulde river, is characterised by high tetrabutyltin and lower tributyltin amounts along the river to its mouth over 350 km away. The concentrations are up to 14 mg tetrabutyltin (Sn)/kg sediment. The superimposed patterns are from ship antifouling paints, characterised by a high content of tributylin in different stages of degradation to di and monoalkylated compounds; this shows the bacterial degradation possibilities for organotins in the river. In general, organometallics are a contaminant of great concern in the Elbe river system.     

Radon isotope assessment of submarine groundwater discharge (SGD) in Coleroon River Estuary,Tamil Nadu,India

Submarine groundwater discharge is the fresh groundwater discharge to sea that impacts the coastal regions. Radon (²²²Rn) isotope has been used to quantify SGD in coleroon river estuary, India. Continuous ²²²Rn analyses were attempted for 10 days in groundwater and pore water samples at three different locations. ²²²Rn in groundwater ranges between 35.0 and 222.0 Bq m^?3 and in pore water between 14.0 and 150.0 Bq m^?3 irrespective of locations. The radon mass balance estimated total SGD rate ranges between 2.37 and 7.47 m days^?1. The SGD increases with distance from coast, influenced by tides and hydrological features.     

Flood control and shrinkage in the Haihe River Mouth

Because of overusing water resources in the upper and middle reaches of the Haihe Basin, less and less water flows to the river mouth. The Haihe River flow is cut off in most time of the seasons, sediment deposited in the river mouth channel is rarely scoured away, and many of the river mouth channels have been shrinking quickly. The discharge capacity of the channel is consequently reduced greatly, which results in more and more serious flood hazard. Many tide gates have been built for storing fresh water and preventing the salty and turbid water. The channel downstream of the gate is silting up and people have to dredge the channel every year before the flood season. This paper studies the laws of the siltation and strategies controlling channel shrinkage. The strategies are digger dredging, trailer dredging, scouring with pumping water or storing tidal water, building double guiding dikes and building a new gate. Comparison of various strategies is performed, suggesting the most effective strategy controlling estuarine channel shrinkage.

     

New aspects on the transuranics transfer in the Palomares marine environment

The environmental contamination of transuranics following the Palomares accident in 1966 (Southern Spain) has been continuous monitored on land and scientific programs are still running. The study of the land to sea transfer of the contamination started in 1986, focussed on the depositional history recorded in marine sediments. At the continental shelf, south of the mouth of the Almanzora river, enhanced levels of plutonium and americium were found which could be related to the accident. Additional analysis of marine sediments, collected far from the impact point, showed the presence of a hot particle. The study of the chronology of this sediment core and the isotopic ratios are given in this paper to assess the origin and pathway of the particle. The route of this particle was found to be the aerial transfer at the time of the accident.     

Chemometric application in classification and assessment of monitoring locations of an urban river system

The study presents the application of selected chemometric techniques: cluster analysis, principal component analysis, factor analysis and discriminant analysis, to classify a river water quality and evaluation of the pollution data. Seventeen stations, monitored for 16 physical and chemical parameters in 4 seasons during the period 1999-2003, located at the Bagmati river basin in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal were selected for the purpose of this study. The results allowed, determining natural clusters of monitoring stations with similar pollution characteristics and identifying main discriminant variables that are important for regional water quality variation and possible pollution sources affecting the river water quality. The analysis enabled to group 17 monitoring sites into 3 regions with 5 major discriminating variables: EC, DO, CL, NO₂N and BOD. Results revealed that some locations were under the high influence of municipal contamination and some others under the influence of minerals. This study demonstrated that chemometric method is effective for river water classification, and for rapid assessment of water qualities, using the representative sites; it could serve to optimize cost and time without losing any significance of the outcome.     

Amazon estuary — assessment of trace elements in seabed sediments

The interactive processes operating on the continental shelf adjacent to the river mouth control the amount and the characteristics of the Amazon discharge reaching the Atlantic Ocean. In this study, the distribution of trace elemental concentrations, with emphasis to the rare-earth elements, in sediment cores collected at several stations from the Amazon continental shelf during the falling water period was investigated by instrumental neutron activation analysis. Cores from the terrigenous and blue water zones have relatively uniform REE concentrations throughout the profile. Cerium anomalies for samples of the upper section of the eight stations are consistently positive and of high values (normally >2). Similar variation in the elemental concentration ratios between the seabed sediments and Amazon River suspended sediments was seen for stations located in the biogenic and blue water zones, with an enrichment for Ce, Sm, Fe, Th, and Sc and a depletion for the La, Eu, Tb, Yb, Co, Cr, Cs, Hf, Ta, and Zn. The shale-normalized REE patterns from shelf sediments are enriched in LREE relative to HREE, with enrichment factors varying from 1.5 for stations near the river mouth (terrigenous zone) to 1.9 for stations located far in the blue water zone. Published data for the Amazon River suspended sediment agree remarkably well with this observation of LREE-enrichment.     

Flood control and shrinkage in the Haihe River Mouth

Because of overusing water resources in the upper and middle reaches of the Haihe Basin, less and less water flows to the river mouth. The Haihe River flow is cut off in most time of the seasons, sediment deposited in the river mouth channel is rarely scoured away, and many of the river mouth channels have been shrinking quickly. The discharge capacity of the channel is consequently reduced greatly, which results in more and more serious flood hazard. Many tide gates have been built for storing fresh water and preventing the salty and turbid water. The channel downstream of the gate is silting up and people have to dredge the channel every year before the flood season. This paper studies the laws of the siltation and strategies controlling channel shrinkage. The strategies are digger dredging, trailer dredging, scouring with pumping water or storing tidal water, building double guiding dikes and building a new gate. Comparison of various strategies is performed, suggesting the most effective strategy con     

Contamination level of Danube river sediments

The paper presents a survey of the contamination level of the Danube river sediments along its course, between 849 km and 1162 km, during the period 1985–1988. Sampling was performed on several locations in the seasons with extreme hydrological conditions (spring, autumn).     

River Pollution Data Interpreted by Means of Chemometric Methods

Environmental data, including river pollution data, are characterized by high variability. Much information is lost by using only univariate graphical or statistical methods for data evaluation and interpretation. Chemometric methods, in particular methods of multivariate data analysis, help to extract the latent information in such data. The combination of cluster analysis as the first step and multivariate analysis of variance and discriminant analysis as the second step enables identification of similar locations in a river. Pollution sources and dischargers can be detected by means of factor analysis. The deposition–remobilization behavior of metals in a river can be described using partial least squares regression. Summarizing, it can be stated that methods of multivariate data analysis are powerful tools for the evaluation and interpretation of river pollution data.     

The change of characteristics of tidal wave in the Changjiang River mouth area since the post-glacial transgression maximum

During the period of the post-glacial transgression maximum (PGTM), there was a huge trumpet estuary in the modern Changjiang River Delta area. The location and the shape of the Paleo-Changjiang River Estuary (PCRE) were much different from those of the present Chang-Jiang River Estuary. The study on the change of characteristics of tidal wave in the Changjiang River mouth area since the PGTM can help to understand better the dynamic development of the Changjiang River Delta. The course curves of tidal level and tidal current velocity during a single tidal cycle for 35 points are calculated, and characteristics of tidal waves in the PCRE and its adjacent area are compared with those of tidal waves in the modern Changjiang River mouth area. The results show that the tidal waves within the PCRE and in its adjacent area during the period of the PGTM belonged to standing wave or a mixture of standing wave and progressive wave. Since then, the tidal wave in the Changjiang River mouth become gradually to be pr     

The change of characteristics of tidal wave in the Changjiang River mouth area since the post-glacial transgression maximum

During the period of the post-glacial transgression maximum (PGTM), there was a huge trumpet estuary in the modern Changjiang River Delta area. The location and the shape of the Paleo-Changjiang River Estuary (PCRE) were much different from those of the present Changjiang River Estuary. The study on the change of characteristics of tidal wave in the Changjiang River mouth area since the PGTM can help to understand better the dynamic development of the Changjiang River Delta. The course curves of tidal level and tidal current velocity during a single tidal cycle for 35 points are calculated, and characteristics of tidal waves in the PCRE and its adjacent area are compared with those of tidal waves in the modern Changjiang River mouth area. The results show that the tidal waves within the PCRE and in its adjacent area during the period of the PGTM belonged to standing wave or a mixture of standing wave and progressive wave. Since then, the tidal wave in the Changjiang River mouth become gradually to be progressive wave with the PCRE being filled and the Changjiang River mouth shifting southeastwards.     

Organic compounds as contaminants of the Elbe River and its tributaries

GC/MS non target screening has been applied to water samples taken during 1992–1994 from the Elbe river and its tributaries Mulde, Saale, Weiße Elster, Schwarze Elster, and Havel. Based on full scan electron impact mass spectra and supplemented by extensive use of chemical ionisation and high resolution data as well as by synthetic reference compounds, several new classes of compounds, whose possible environmental effects are yet unknown at present, have been identified. Tetrachlorinated bis-(propyl)ethers are new among the most prominent contaminants throughout the Elbe river. The confluence with the Mulde river adds a variety of compounds, related to the chemistry of chloro- and nitroaromatics, azo dyes, benzanilides, carbamates, thiophosphates, and pesticides. The combined load of the Weiße Elster and Saale rivers carries oligoformals, oxathiamacrocycles, and dichloro- and trichloro-bis-(propyl)ethers, whereas chloropropylphosphates are introduced via the Schwarze Elster. The majority of these compounds, originating from sources at the tributaries, are still present at the mouth of the Elbe river. In addition to specific industrial emissions, a variety of more generally observed organic compounds like long chain aliphatics, sterols, phenylalkanes, and plasticizers as well as ubiquitous environmental trace pollutants like polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, chlorobenzenes, and hexachlorocyclohexane isomers have been encountered throughout the Elbe river drainage system.Part I: S. Franke, S. Hildebrandt, W. Francke, H. Reincks (1995) Naturwissenschaften 82: 80–83     

Anthropogenic emissions of210Po,210Pb and226Ra in an estuarine environment

An extensive study on the distribution of natural radionuclides in an estuarine ecosystem located in Southwestern Spain is presented. This environment is highly affected by the wastes released by a phosphoric acid industry which uses phosphate rocks as raw material for fertilizer production. This rock has generally high concentrations of U and its daughters. The estuary is formed by two rivers, Odiel and Tinto, which have a common mouth into the Atlanic Ocean and a salt marsh (Odiel marsh) affected by the income of Odiel riverwaters. This river receives directly the liquid and part of the solid (gypsum) wastes released from the industries. Besides that, most of the phosphogypsum wastes are stored in uncovered piles at the right margin of the Tinto river. The study has concluded that the wastes from such industries are the cause of the enhanced concentrations found at the bed of both river channels as well as the enhancement found in surface soils in certain zones of the Odiel wet marshland. Indeed, the Northern marsh and the Mojarrera channel at the Odiel marsh seem to be the main sinks of the contaminant released by the phosphoric acid industry.     

Employment of peak area as instrumental datum for improving the voltammetric quantitative analysis of heavy metals in fresh and sea water in the presence of surfactants

Peak area instead of peak height is used for the simultaneous determination of Cu(II), Pb(II), Cd(II), and Zn(II) in fresh and sea water in the presence of anionic and cationic surfactants by differential pulse anodic stripping voltammetry. These species, if present, tend to make more irreversible the electrodic process of the metals. Because the employment of peak area for species having irreversible electrodic processes permits limits of detection about one or 2 orders of magnitude lower, this work shows the possibility of determining heavy metals at ultratrace level concentrations in the presence of surfactants, compounds which are always present in natural waters. The precision and accuracy of the analytical method were checked by the analysis of the standard reference materials (SRM) Fresh Water NIST-SRM 1643d, Sea Water BCR-CRM 403, and Estuarine Water BCR-CRM 505. The former, expressed as relative standard deviation (s(r)), and the latter, expressed as relative error (e), were satisfactory, being in all cases lower than 5%. The analytical procedure has been applied to fresh and sea water sampled in the Po river mouth area (Italy).