2000 years of sediment-borne heavy metal storage in the Yorkshire Ouse basin, NE England, UK
✍ Scribed by Karen A. Hudson-Edwards; Mark G. Macklin; Mark P. Taylor
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 377 KB
- Volume
- 13
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 0885-6087
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✦ Synopsis
Floodplain overbank sediments are often used to evaluate the in¯uence of environmental change on sediment and chemical ¯uxes within river basins. This paper presents the results of an investigation of heavy metal storage in seven ¯oodplain reaches in the Yorkshire Ouse basin in north-east England. Floodplain heavy metal storage has been greatest since c. 1750, and many of the post-1750 sedimentary units exhibit heavy metal values that exceed recommended trigger and guideline values for contaminated land. Relatively high heavy metal storage occurs from AD 1250±1750 in most of the reaches. These patterns are related to 2000 years of Pb and Zn mining in the Yorkshire Dales and c. 250±300 years of industrial and urbanization activity around Leeds and Bradford, and increased delivery of ®ne-grained sediment during the last millennium, possibly owing to factors such as population growth and agricultural expansion during the Middle Ages, and climate change during the Little Ice Age.