Influence of point sources on heavy metal accumulation in different apartments of Jiaozhou Bay
点源污染对胶州湾海水体系中不同形态重金属富集的影响

The pollution and enrichment states of heavy metals in suspended particulate matter (SPM), sediment core and benthic organisms were analyzed and evaluated in Jiaozhou Bay. Results showed that: (1) The discharge of a large amount of untreated effluents and the insufficient diffusion of the terrestrial contamination to outer bay directly led to point source contamination, which caused the heavy metal enrichment in water and in benthic organism; (2) Anthropogenic activities significantly affected the heavy metals enrichment in SPM. The anthropogenic factors (AF) of sediment cores showed that the pollution at the estuary was more serious than that of other investigated areas; (3) The concentration of heavy metals in benthic organism had close relationship with the distance from the sampling site to the pollution sources. Venerupis Philippinarum, a benthic organism, was estimated to have higher accumulating capacity to cadmium as compared to any other tested heavy metals.