Abstract
Human activities, such as agriculture and industrial
manufacturing, have supplied contaminants to the river
systems, and are changing their biogeochemical propertities
and ecosystems. These human-induced impacts have put river
systems under great pressure in the recent decade. It has
therefore become increasingly important to evaluate the
anthropogenic controls and quantitatively assess their relative
impacts on the river systems. In this study, we explore the
potential of the Sr, Nd, and Pb isotope systems as a
fingerprinting tool to trace anthropogenic controls on
historically heavily contaminated river Weser in Germany.
Sediment samples were collected along the river Weser
and its tritutaries, covering areas of agricultural land and
industrial sites, and expanding to coastal areas of the North
Sea. Isotopic ratios of Sr, Nd, and Pb were measured on MC-
ICP-MS (Multi-collector-Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass
Spectrometry) with the newly-developed automated
prepFAST sample purification method [1]. The Sr, Nd and Pb
isotope results reported here are the first such dataset obtained
from the sediment of the river Weser. Using mixing models,
we demonstrate the great potential of the Sr, Nd and Pb
isotope systems as fingerprinting tools to identify the sources
of contaminants and to evaluate anthropogenic controls on the
load of contaminants in the sediment. Coupled with
measurement of elemental compositions in the sediment and
the principal component analysis, we further provide an
evaluation of the relative contribution of various sources to
the load of contaminants in the river Weser. An attempt is
also made to quantify the flux of the river to the North Sea,
providing an insight into the contribution of the river system
to contaminants transported into the coastal zone.
