Temporal trends of heavy metals in sediment core from the gulf of Palermo (Sicily, Italy)

The evaluation of long–term heavy metal concentrations in the Gulf of Palermo was carried out in this study. Measurements of Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn concentrations were performed by atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS) on dated fractions of a sediment core, dated by the 210Pbex method. They are found to cover a time period from 1951 to 2004. The constant sedimentation rate model was used for dating. Specific activities of 137Cs have also been measured in the sediment core sections as a check of the time scale derived by the 210Pbex method. A time-series analysis based on temporal decomposition was used in order to investigate the presence of heavy metal pollution trend. The additive component model, widely used to estimate seasonal and long–term behavior, was chosen for the temporal analysis. Results showed the presence of a specific heavy metal concentration trend. Residual time–autocorrelation has also been taken into account in order to investigate their stochastic properties. Concentrations of some metals (Cu, Hg, and Zn) have been found increasing until the beginning of the 1970s. A peak around the beginning of the 1980s has been found for Cr and Pb. Heavy metal concentration in the sediment core show a significant decreasing after these years. Our results for the concentration time trends are in good agreement with other surveys performed in different areas of the world, and they can be explained in terms of the reduction of anthropogenic contribution to atmospheric emissions. Further investigations on time properties and spatial distributions, are also planned.