Impact of anions on the heavy metals release from marine sediments

Marine sediments from Lianshan Bay in Huludao, China, were studied in laboratory. A series of simulated experiments were carried out to investigate the influences of three kinds of anions Cl , SO42- and HCO3 on the release of Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn from the sediments. The results showed that the sequences about the impact of the three anions were Cl >HCO3 >SO42-. The release potential of heavy metals in the presence of each anions was in the following order: CdCu>Zn≈Pb. The correlations were positive between Cl content and the quantity of Cd released from the marine sediment, whereas there was no significant relationship between Cl content and amount of Cu and Zn released. For SO42- and HCO3 , the release of the heavy metals from marine sediments was not obvious.