Xiang Ye

Assessment of heavy metal pollution in surficial sediments from a tropical river-estuary-shelf system: A case study of Kelantan River, Malaysia

To understand the source-to-sink of pollutants in the Kelantan River estuary and the adjacent shelf area in Malaysia, a total of 42 surface sediment samples were collected in the Kelantan River-estuary-shelf system to analyze for grain size, total organic carbon (TOC) content, Al and heavy metals (Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb). The surficial sediments were mainly composed of clayey silt and the TOC content in sediments decreased from the river to the shelf. The surficial sediments experienced Pb pollution; Cr only showed a certain level of pollution in the coastal area of the estuary but not in other areas, and Ni, Cu, Zn, and Cd showed no pollution. The heavy metals mainly originated from natural weathering and erosion of rocks and soils in the catchment and enriched near the river mouth. Total organic carbon can promote the enrichment of heavy metals in sediments.

Impact of Rapid Urbanization on the Modern Sedimentary Environments in a Semi-Enclosed Embayment: Tong'an Bay, Southeast China Coast

ABSTRACT Tong’an Bay (TAB) is a semienclosed embayment in the north of Xiamen Island. The sea area of TAB was mainly used for aquaculture in enclosed areas before 2003. Since 2003, the districts surrounding TAB have been undergoing a rapid urbanization process, and the scale of land used for urban construction in these districts has been continuously increasing. Under the backdrop of rapid urbanization, the coastline of TAB has largely been transformed into an artificial coastline. Due to the large scale of land reclamation and, dredging activities and the opening of the Gaoqi-Jimei (GJ) Seawall, there have been relatively significant changes in the coastal and submarine geomorphology in central northern, western, and southern TAB and Wuyuan Bay as well as a significant increase in the area where artificial submarine geomorphologies are distributed; the number of surface sediment types in the TAB has increased, and sediments in the sea area surrounding engineering projects have been coarsening; the sediment transport pattern has not significantly changed at the mouth of TAB and in central northern TAB, but the suspended sediment transport direction near the GJ Seawall has changed to a certain extent.

Study on the seasonal migration of surface suspended sediment in the Taiwan Strait based on remote sensing

Concentration of suspended sediment directly affects the optical properties such as transparency and water color, and aquatic environment as well. This paper selects the Taiwan Strait as study area, establishes inversion mode of suspended sediment by coupling field data with remote sensing reflectance from MODIS data. Monthly-averaged concentrations and seasonal changes of suspended sediment from 2003 to 2012 were calculated and analyzed by the mode. The main results are as follows:(1) remote sensing reflectance at 555nm from MODIS data has high relativity with the field observed turbidity by regression equation of Y =0.8931e123.93x in which Y is TSM concentration, X is Rrs555 and R2 is 0.6836. (2)Suspended sediment in the Taiwan Strait has obviously spatial and temporal distribution characteristics, that higher concentration of suspended sediment is in coastal water and decreases from shore to sea, and highest concentration happens in winter.