Abstract
An experimental method has been developed to study material and radioactivity fluxes at the sediment-water interface and in the sedimentary column. This method has been applied in the Gulf of Fos, an area that is affected by deposits from the river Rhone, and where biodeposition products, resulting from the presence of intensive mussel cultures, can induce a concentration of trace elements at the sediment-water interface.
Sediment surface materials were labelled with a mixture of radionuclides (Cerium-144, Cobalt-60 and Cesium-137), in experimental cores filled either with sediment containing in situ fauna or with defaunated sediment.
The coupling of this mixture with luminophores — inert colored sediment particles — enabled us to measure radionuclide flux in both solute fraction and solid fraction. At the sediment-water interface, the tracer balance indicates that migrations into deeper sediment are estimated to be until 25 times greater in presence of macrofauna, depending on the tracer examined. Bioturbation may equally enhance exportation to the water column, to a factor ranging from 1.5 to 2.0. During a period of 14 days, in presence of macrofauna, we observed a migration of radionuclides to a maximum depth of 11 cm. A similar distribution pattern of luminophores at the same sediment depths indicates the preponderance of particle reworking in migration.
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Gontier, G., Gerino, M., Stora, G., Melquiond, J.P. (1991). A New Tracer Technique for in Situ Experimental Study of Bioturbation Processes. In: Kershaw, P.J., Woodhead, D.S. (eds) Radionuclides in the Study of Marine Processes. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3686-0_20
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-011-3686-0_20
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