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Natural and anthropic pollution episodes during theLate Holocene evolution of the Tinto River estuary(SW Spain)
Marta Arroyo, Francisco Ruiz, María Luz González-Regalado, Joaquín Rodríguez Vidal, Luis Miguel Cáceres, Manuel Olías, Juan Manuel Campos, Lucía Fernández, Manuel Abad, Tatiana Izquierdo, Paula Gómez, Antonio Toscano, Verónica Romero, Gabriel Gómez

This paper investigates the paleoenvironmental evolution of a core extracted in the middle sector of the Tinto River estuary, SW Spain, one of the most polluted areas in the world due to mining over thousands of years (>4 kyr BP) and recent industrial discharges. This evolution includes alluvial sands (>6.4 cal kyr BP), bioclastic sands and silts deposited in subtidal and intertidal channels during and after the Holocene transgression maximum (6.4-4.3 cal kyr BP), the sedimentation of clayey-sandy silts in low and high marshes during the last 2.4 kyr BP and a final anthropic filling. Three sharp peaks of pollution have been detected, representing a) a natural origin during the Holocene transgression; b) the impact of the first mining activities (~4.5 cal kyr BP); and c) the effect of industrial discharge and a new period of mining activity throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Foraminifera, ostracods and molluscs disappeared during these last two peaks.

Keywords: pollution; paleoenvironment; biomarkers; Holocene; Tinto estuary; SW Spain
Contents of this volume Sci. Mar. 85(2) : 113-123 Back PDF
 
 
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