Regional background concentrations of heavy metals (Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb) in coastal sediments of the South Sea of Korea

The background concentration (BC) of metals in coastal sediments may be a useful tool for assessing the extent of sediment contamination by human activities. This study presents an approach to establish BCs that are applicable at the regional scale, particularly for coastal areas with relatively tortuous coastlines and complex coastal geology and/or geomorphology like the South Sea of Korea. The approach is based on the sorption hypothesis for metal enrichment of coastal sediments and was verified using 33 core and 187 surface sediments. The concentrations of major and heavy metals, grain size parameters, organic carbon, and sedimentation rates were determined. Cs was selected as the most suitable geochemical normalizer to correct the grain-size effect. Non-contaminated samples from core sediments were selected according to the sedimentation rate, 32 types of profile pattern based on metal concentrations and metal/Cs ratios, and their variability in past sediments. Metal concentrations in the selected non-contaminated samples were well correlated with Cs, with a given Cs amounts in surface sediments corresponding to the lowest metal concentrations. This result supported the use of a procedure based on the sorption hypothesis, which was then used to synthesize all core samples and establish the regional BC of heavy metals in the coastal sediments. Linear regression equations between metal and Cs concentrations provided the following BCs of metals in coastal sediments in the South Sea of Korea: 70 (Cr), 13 (Co), 30 (Ni), 13 (Cu), 87 (Zn), and 23 (Pb) mg/kg at 8 mg/kg of Cs (mean concentration of 393 sediments).