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Four fluvial sediment cores were geochemically analysed for their major elements and for their trace metal contents and represent a sensitive environmental record for heavy metal contamination in a pyrite mining area, Pearl River Basin, South China. While an identification of depositional and post-depositional processes is not possible by means of the vertical profiles of the trace metal contents alone, factor analysis uncovers four main factors that control trace metal distributions in the sediment cores. After analysing the geochemical fractions of heavy metals by a sequential extraction procedure, these four factors could be explained as (i) complexation with organic matter in the sediment (As, Cu, Ni and Zn), (ii) weathering processes by iron reduction and oxidation (Pb, Mo and Cr), (iii) weathering by Mn reduction and oxidation (Tl and Co) and (iv) binding effects of sulphur in the sediment or physical transport of pyrite tailings (Zn). The environmental evaluation by geoaccumulation indices and enrichment factors reveals that the studied sediment cores are significantly contaminated and enriched with As, Tl, Pb and Zn. The risk assessment code additionally suggests low to medium risk of these studied heavy metals on the whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A comparison between the 14C content of the methane and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) in deep, terrestrial subsurface systems was used to assess the timing of microbial methanogenesis contributing to gases in fracture water samples from three mines in the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa. The results demonstrated that the majority of methane was produced over geologic timescales. In four of the samples, the methane contained no significant radiocarbon, indicating that the estimated 90% microbial methane in these samples was produced in the geologic past by indigenous microbial communities. In two samples from different mines, methane Δ14C levels indicated a primarily ancient origin for the microbial methane with the potential for more recent contributions from ongoing indigenous microbial activities constrained to between 0 and 40%, and 0 and 24%, respectively. Microbiological evidence for methanogenic archaea was observed in both of these samples. One sample had a Δ14C CH4 that was higher than the corresponding DIC, indicating an extreme decoupling between these species and raising concerns over the representative quality of this sample. The variations in the Δ14C of DIC and CH4 between and within mines demonstrate the need for a thorough assessment of each sample to obtain an accurate understanding of the role and timing of microbiological gas production in these complex, heterogeneous, terrestrial subsurface systems. The approach detailed here introduces timing as a new and widely applicable signature for the recognition of a major geochemical marker of indigenous life in the deep subsurface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Phenoxyalkanoic acids like the 4-chloro-2-methylphenoxyacetic acid (MCPA) are the second highest used xenobiotic herbicides worldwide after glyphosate because of their apparently favorable environmental properties. Experimental batch equilibration data suggested a reduced Cu adsorption efficiency with the soil mineral goethite below pH 6 in presence of MCPA. This has been verified by advanced surface complexation adsorption modelling involving dissolved Cu-MCPA complexation constants. Positron emission tomography is a non-invasive molecular imaging method for time-resolved three-dimensional information commonly applied on non-retarded tracers in soil core scale experiments. Mineral surface reactive tracers like Cu-64 are too immobile for the relatively short observation times available with this advanced imaging technique. However, Cu-64 radiolabeled Cu-MCPA complex migration could be observed in as long as 10-cm artificial soil test columns where break-through occurred within a few days. For the first time, time-lapse movies of Cu migration in the opaque soil columns were recorded using this novel reactive transport process tomography approach.