In the current study, sub-fossil Cladocera collected from the surface sediment of 44 shallow lakes spanning over five latitudes from north to south of Turkey using snap-shot methodology revealed strong impact of salinity on cladoceran community structure. To see the whole picture, sediment cores collected from six of the lakes and long-term monitoring data from two of the lakes were also investigated. Contemporary cladocerans and sub-fossil assemblages were compared to reveal that their responses to salinity changes were highly similar. This lead us to use sub-fossil cladocerans and salinity data from water column together while generating the calibration data set using ordination techniques. Salinity transfer function models were developed utilising weighted averaging techniques. The developed salinity transfer function was applied to cladocera assemblages from dated sediment cores. Hindcasting of the salinity inference model was performed using monitoring data and the reconstructed salinities from two central Anatolian lakes and reflected good linear correlation with the known lake salinity history. This thesis has confirmed that sub-fossil Cladocera is a valuable indicator of historical salinity change and marker for the monitoring of lakes. For the first time, the lake environmental variables and sub-fossil cladoceran species composition from the surface sediments of Turkish shallow lakes were studied and a salinity transfer function was developed to elucidate past salinity change. The approach of the current study has been proven to be reliable while interpreting past salinity conditions. Since monitoring programmes are scarce in Turkey, paleolimnological analyses would be beneficial especially when defining effective restoration strategies.

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Österbyverken is an industrial estate in Östhammars municipality in Uppland, Sweden. Many different activities have taken place on the estate the last 600 years. During the last 15 years both health and environmental studies have been made by different companies. At the most recent study a great increase of metals in Nerån, a river that runs partly through and partly next to the estate, was identified with mass balances. The purpose of this thesis is to accomplish a deepened study about the reasons for the increase of metals in Nerån. The aim is to identify knowledge gaps in the mass balances and try to complete these. From the outcome an environmental risk assessment will be attempted for Nerån and its outlet in the lake Filmsjön. The method went through steps and started with data analyses after which calculations for new mass balances were made. Beginning by acknowledge the increase of metals from the groundwater, both through measured results and through calculated confidence intervals. In addition, among other methods, calculations of theoretical leakage data from Kd-values were made. Surface water concentrations were also compared with levels of metals in sediments to see whether any connection existed between them. Additional mass balances were calculated to take suspended solids in the surface water under consideration. From the results an environmental risk assessment was made using guidelines from Netherland and Canada and the state division from the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The results of the study show that the differences of metal content between surface water and groundwater and between surface water and sediments might be smaller than first revealed, but there is still a great increase caused by another, unknown source. The environmental risk assessment shows that there are hazards for both Nerån and Filmsjön because of the leakage of metals from Österbyverken. For the surface water in Nerån it is mainly cobalt, copper and zinc that contributes with risks, for the sediment in Nerån it is mainly barium, cobalt, copper, chromium and nickel and for the sediments in Filmsjön it is mainly lead, cobalt, copper, chromium, nickel and zinc. Reasons for the differences between metal contents and medias might be from surface water outlet from the Österbyverken or because of differences in methods of taking specimens in surface and groundwater. Conclusions that have been drawn of the study is that further studies of the knowledge gaps needs to be done, particularly regarding the metals cobalt, copper, chromium, nickel and zinc. Further, the biodiversity in Nerån and Filmsjön is at risk, partly because several metals in the sediments reaches such high concentrations, partly because high concentrations of several metals in one area may increase risks.

High rates of soil loss and high sediment loads in rivers necessitate efficient monitoring and quantification methodologies so that effective land management strategies can be designed. Constructing a sediment budget is a useful approach to address these issues. Quantifying a sediment budget using classical field-based techniques, however, is labour intensive and expensive for poorly gauged, large drainage basins. The availability of global environmental datasets in combination with GIS techniques provides an opportunity for studying large basins. Following this approach, a framework is presented for constructing sediment budgets for large, data-sparse drainage basins, which is applied to the mountainous upper Indus River basin in northern Pakistan. The methodological framework consists of five steps: (1) analyzing hydro-climatological data for dividing the drainage basin into characteristic regions, and calculating sediment yields; (2) investigation of major controls on sediment yields; (3) identification and mapping of sediment source areas by spatially distributed modelling of erosional processes; (4) spatially distributed modelling of sediment yields; and (5) carrying out the sediment budget balance calculation at the basin outlet. Further analysis carried out on the Indus data has enabled a better understanding of sediment dynamics in the basin.<p> Analysis of the available hydro-climatological data indicates that the basin can be subdivided into three characteristic regions based on whether runoff production and subsequent sediment generation is controlled by temperature (Region 1, upper, glacierized sub-basins), precipitation caused by the monsoon and western disturbances (Region 3, lower sub-basins), or a combination of the two (Region 2, middle reach sub-basins). It is also demonstrated that contrary to the conventional model, the specific sediment yield increases markedly with drainage area along the Indus River. An investigation of major controls on specific sediment yield in the basin indicates that percent snow/ice cover is a major land cover control for specific sediment yield. Spatially distributed erosion modelling predictions indicate that 87% of the annual gross erosion takes place in the three summer months with greatest erosion potential concentrated in sub-basins with high relief and a substantial proportion of glacierized area. Lower erosion rates can be explained by the arid climate and low relief on the Tibetan Plateau, and by the dense vegetation and lower relief in the lower monsoon sub-region. The model predicts an average annual erosion rate of 3.2 mm/a or 868 Mt/a. Spatially distributed sediment yield predictions made with coupled models of erosion and sediment delivery indicate that the Indus sub-basins generally show an increase of sediment delivery ratio with basin area. The predicted annual basin sediment yield is 244 Mt/a and the overall sediment delivery ratio in the basin is calculated as 0.28. The long-term mean annual sediment budget, based on mass balance, is characterized by a gross erosion of 762.9, 96.7 and 8.4 Mt, and a gross storage of 551.4, 66.1, and 6.5 Mt in the upper, middle, and lower regions of the basin, respectively. The sediment budget indicates that the major sources of eroded sediment are located in the Karakoram, in particular in the Hunza basin. Substantial sediment storage occurs on the relatively flat Tibetan Plateau and the Indus River valley reach between Partab Bridge and Shatial. The presented framework for sediment budget construction requires relatively few data, mostly derived from global datasets. It therefore can be utilized for other ungauged or poorly gauged drainage basins of the world.

The distribution of butyltin compounds (BTs) in the sediments and seawater, at the river outfalls, fishing ports, shipyards, and industrial zone docks of Kaohsiung Harbor, Taiwan were investigated. Twenty sediment and seawater samples were collected from various locations in the Harbor in 2006, and analyzed for monobutyltin (MBT), dibutyltin (DBT), and tributyltin (TBT). Results showed that the concentration of total BTs varied from 1.5 to 151 ng/g in sediment samples, with TBT being the major component of the sediment samples. This suggests that sediments could be the most possible sink of TBT brought by the sorption mechanism. The concentrations of BTs ranged from 9.7 to 270 ng/L in seawater samples, whereas DBT and MBT, the degradation byproducts of TBT, were mainly the most abundant BT compounds of the seawater samples. This indicates that the abiotic or biotic degradation potential of TBT was significant. Spatially, the highest concentrations of BTs were observed in both water and sediment samples collected from the shipyard and fishing port areas. This indicates that the shipping related activities (e.g., navigation, ship repair, and ship building), would contribute most of BTs in the environment. Results show that the concentrations of degradation products (DBT and MBT) were related closely to temperature, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), and chlorophyll-a of the seawater. This implies that seasonal changes of the water parameters controlled the degradation of TBT in seawater. The observed levels of BT compounds in both seawater and sediments were much higher than those required to induce toxic effects on marine organisms suggesting that appropriate TBT control strategies should be taken in Kaohsiung Harbor. Sediment samples were collected from the river outfalls, fishing ports, shipyards, and industrial zone docks of Kaohsiung Harbor, Taiwan to evaluate the distribution of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in sediments. Collected sediment samples from 12 locations were analyzed for 17 different PAHs, organic content, and grain size. The results show that the total PAH concentrations varied from 472 to 16,201 ng/g dry wt, with a mean concentration of 5,764 ng/g dry wt The highest PAH concentrations were from the industrial zone docks situated in south Kaohsiung Harbor, ranging from 8,788 to 16,201 ng/g dry wt Among those sediment samples, the 5-, 6-ring PAHs were predominant PAH congeners in sediments, ranging from 42 to 71%. However, the dominant PAH congeners were 2-, 3-ring PAHs (37 to 42%) collected from steel industrial zone docks. This indicates that the sources for the PAH contamination at steel industrial zone docks were different from the other zones in Kaohsiung Harbor. According to the diagnostic ratios, the possible source of PAHs in the industrial zone dock could be coal combustion while in the other zones it could be petroleum combustion. The total PAH levels were expressed as the total toxic equivalent (TEQcarc). The total TEQcarc varied from 55 to 1,964 ng TEQ/g dry wt. Higher total TEQcarc values were found at industrial zone docks (from 1,404 to 1,964 ng TEQ/g dry wt). As compared with the US Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs), the observed levels of PAHs at industrial zone docks exceeded the effects range low (ERL), and could thus cause acute biological damage. However, the lower levels of PAHs at the other zones would not exert adverse biological effects. Results would be helpful in developing strategies for sediment remediation in Kaohsiung Harbor.

This research investigated the accumulation of metals (Cu, Zn, Cr, Pb, Cd and Fe) in sediment of Gao-ping River and Gao-ping submarine canyon. Both Sediment Quality Guidelines (SQGs) by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and Soil Quality Guidelines by Taiwan Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) were used to assess the extent of risk of these metals to the local ecological system. The results found no significant correlation between concentration of metals and volatile solid as well as particle size. It is noted that significant contaminations in zinc and lead were observed in sediments from both Gao-ping River and the starting point of Gao-ping submarine canyon, which concentrations exceeded the guidelines of Effect Range-Medium (ERM) by NOAA. Very likely, this is resulted from the metal and electroplating factories in the catchment area of Gao-ping River. It also provides evidence of the role of Gao-ping submarine canyon in accumulation of terrestrial and anthropogenic pollutants.

In the past, the suspended sediment concentration (SSC) was mainly measured by the optical backscattering device (OBS) and water sample filtration. However, there has been a new development that user is based on the acoustics backscattering (ABS) to measure the SSC in the world. The acoustic instruments have some advantages that the optical ones do not have. For example, acoustic instruments are not effected by high turbidity, biofouling and high viscosity in the water. Acoustic instruments have high spatial and temporal resolutions. And they can immediately indicate the SSC changes than the water sample filtration method. Therefore, in this study we used the multi-frequency acoustics instrument (AQUAscat-1000) to investigate the relations of the suspended sediment size and concentration to the acoustic characteristics. The results are separated into two parts: (1) The calibration process in the flume. (2) The acoustic results in the field experiment. In the first part, we examined the range of preferred bin size with respect to the different frequencies as well as the condition in the flume, and determine that conclude the 20 mm is the best range for our case. In addition, the gain should be used when the maximum SSC is less than 100 mg/l and vice versa. Therefore, in the field case around the river mouth, the signal gain should be turned off due to high concentrations. According to the sensitivity of the backscatter intensity of different frequencies to the suspended particle sizes, multiple frequencies are needed to derive the SSC when the sediment size becomes smaller. The last point in this part is the comparison of the results between the acoustics and optical instruments. When the suspended particles in the water column are transparent, the optical measurement of the SSC is underestimated, but the acoustic method is not. The result of the field experiment in 2009 showed that the AQUAscat-1000 is a better instrument to quantify SSC than the optical instruments. The SSC increase caused by the bottom sediment re-suspension was due to the wave shear. In the 2011 experiment, although the acoustic results overestimated the SSC at some points but they still had higher relation and significance with water sample data than the optical measurements. The SSC increase caused by the bottom sediment re-suspension was due to the current shear.

Thesis (M. Phil.)--University of Hong Kong, 1978.

Understanding specific pathways for sand transport in the lower reaches of large rivers, particularly the Mississippi, is the key to addressing multiple significant geologic problems and for environmental restoration efforts. Field studies were performed in the Mississippi River 75-100 km upstream of the Gulf of Mexico outlet in April 2010 (water discharge: 23,000 m³ s⁻¹), May 2010 (18,500-20,500 m³ s⁻¹), and March 2011 (27,000 m³ s⁻¹) to examine sediment transport phenomena in the river channel. Methods comprised multibeam sonar bathymetric surveys, acoustic Doppler current profiler measurements of current velocity and acoustic backscatter, point-integrated isokinetic suspended sediment sampling, and channel-bed grab sampling. Channel morphology surveys revealed a 30-60 m deep thalweg, alternating between banks every 2-3 km, opposite bedform-covered lateral sand bars. Dune sizes nearest the thalweg ranged from 7 m wavelength and 0.3 m height to over 100 m wavelength and 2.3 m height as a function of water discharge, with decreasing dune sizes towards shallow water. Material comprising the dunes was well-sorted, 125-500 [mu]m sand. Bedload transport rates increased exponentially with water discharge in April 2010 and March 2011 comparable to previous studies in this reach, though rates in May 2011 were well below predicted values for a site (Myrtle Grove) immediately downriver of a sand-mining project. Average water velocities ranged from 1.3 m s⁻¹ in May 2010 to 2 m s⁻¹ in March 2011. Skin-friction shear stress increased with water discharge, but varied over an order of magnitude at all measured discharges. Suspended sand concentration and grain size increased with proximity to the bed during all study periods, and was most pronounced in March 2011. Suspended sand concentrations were greatest over the center of lateral bars, and lowest in the thalweg, indicating that sand transport downstream occurs primarily over lateral sand bars where there is a combination of high shear stress and available bed material. Total bed-material discharge increased exponentially with water discharge. Bedform-induced turbulence may be responsible for the bed material suspension. These results are relevant to coastal restoration efforts by river diversion which seek to distribute sand from the upper water column to deltaic interdistributary wetlands. / text

A key goal of tsunami research is to quantitatively reconstruct flow parameters from paleotsunami deposits in order to better understand the geohazards of coastal areas. These reconstructions rely on grain-size and thickness measurements of tsunami deposits, combined with simple models that allow an inversion from deposit characteristics to wave characteristics. I conducted flume experiments to produce a data set that can be used to evaluate inversion models for tsunami deposition under controlled boundary conditions. Key variables in the flume experiments are sediment grain-size distribution, flow velocity and depth, and depth of water ponded in the flume before the tsunami bore was released. Physical experiments were run in a 32 m-long outdoor flume at The University of Texas at Austin. The flume has a head box with a specialized mechanical lift gate that allows instantaneous release of water to create a bore. Various sediment mixtures (silt to very coarse sand) are introduced to the upstream end of the channel as a low dune positioned just below the lift gate. The bore entrained the sediment mixture, producing an unambiguous suspension-dominated deposit in the downstream half of the channel. Deposits were sampled for grain-size and thickness trends. The experimental results capture characteristics of many recent and paleotsunami deposits, including consistent fining in the transport direction. In addition to overall fining, trends in deposit sorting and coarse (D95) and fine (D10) fractions reveal the importance of sediment-source grain-size distribution on tsunami deposit attributes. / text