Abstract
In order to understand the behaviors of heavy metals at the confluence of the river and sea waters, the surface and vertical distributions of heavy metals such as Al, Ti, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Y have been investigated at the Tama River estuary and Tokyo Bay. The gallium coprecipitation preconcentration-ICP (inductively coupled plasma) atomic emission spectrometric method was applied in the analysis, where the above mentioned elements were determined simultaneously. The sampling locations were 4 points between the Tama River estuary and the center of the Tokyo Bay. The concentrations of heavy metals showed characteristic changes for each element as the functions of location (distance from the river mouth) and depth. The concentrations of Fe, Ti, Mn, Co, and Y became lower at the deeper layer of sea water near the center of the bay, where the salinity was higher. On the other hand, those of Al, Cu, Ni and Zn were higher near the bottom layer. These experimental results may be important in the understanding of the distribution behaviors of trace heavy metals in the estuarine and coastal areas, which may be regulated by the exclusion and dissolution phenomena with suspended particles.
