Heavy metal pollution recorded in Porites corals from Daya Bay, northern South China Sea

Tian-Ran Chen (1) , Ke-Fu Yu (1, 2) , Shu Li (1) , Gilbert J. Price (2) , Qi Shi (1) , Gang-Jian Wei (1)

1 CAS - Chinese Academy of Sciences [Beijing]
2 UQ [All campuses : Brisbane, Dutton Park Gatton, Herston, St Lucia and other locations] - The University of Queensland

We examined metal-to-calcium ratios (Fe/Ca, Mn/Ca and Zn/Ca) in the growth bands of two corals from Daya Bay, South China Sea, in order to trace long-term trends in local ambient pollution levels. Although Fe and Mn did not show any obvious increasing trends over 32 years in the period 1976-2007, peak values of Fe/Ca and Mn/Ca occurred in the mid-late 1980s, temporally-coeval with the local construction of a nuclear power station. Furthermore, both corals showed rapid increases in Zn concentrations over the past 14 years (1994-2007), most likely due to increases in domestic and industrial sewage discharge. The DayaBay corals had higher concentrations of metals than other reported corals from both pristine and seriously polluted locations, suggesting that acute (Fe and Mn) and chronic (Zn) heavy metal contamination has occurred locally over the past ˜32 years.

Mots clés: Heavy metals; Pollution monitoring; corals; Coastal zone; Daya Bay; South China Sea

Tian-Ran Chen, Ke-Fu Yu, Shu Li, Gilbert J. Price, Qi Shi, et al.. Heavy metal pollution recorded in Porites corals from Daya Bay, northern South China Sea. Marine Environmental Research, 2010, 70 (3-4), pp.318. ⟨10.1016/j.marenvres.2010.06.004⟩. ⟨hal-00613293⟩