River sediments a dynamic reserve of pollutants

Friday, May 8, 2015 - 12:00 in Earth & Climate

Research has located the stretches in the River Deba and its tributaries posing the greatest potential hazard owing to their high metal content, has identified the sources of pollution and has assessed the effect that a certain type of flood event has on the carrying away and distribution of sediments and associated metals. Metals are pollutants that have to be monitored in order to obtain a global overview of the quality of water systems, due to the fact that they remain in the environment. Although sediments act as a drain for pollutants, they can also act as a source of pollutants under certain environmental conditions (like changes in the composition of the water or movement of the sediments owing to a flood event).

Read the whole article on Science Daily

More from Science Daily

Latest Science Newsletter

Get the latest and most popular science news articles of the week in your Inbox! It's free!

Check out our next project, Biology.Net