Impact of anions on the heavy metals release from marine sediments

Marine sediments from Lianshan Bay in Huludao, China, were studied in laboratory. A series of simulated experiments were carried out to investigate the influences of three kinds of anions Cl−, SO42- and HCO3− on the release of Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn from the sediments. The results showed that the sequences about the impact of the three anions were Cl− >HCO3−>SO42-. The release potential of heavy metals in the presence of each anions was in the following order: Cd≫Cu>Zn≈Pb. The correlations were positive between Cl− content and the quantity of Cd released from the marine sediment, whereas there was no significant relationship between Cl− content and amount of Cu and Zn released. For SO42- and HCO3−, the release of the heavy metals from marine sediments was not obvious.