Occurrence and Temporal Variation of Technology-Critical Elements in North Sea Sediments-A Determination of Preliminary Reference Values.

ABSTRACT: As interest in the investigation of possible sources and environmental sinks of technology-critical elements (TCEs) continues to grow, the demand for reliable background level information of these elements in environmental matrices increases. In this study, a time series of ten years of sediment samples from two different regions of the German North Sea were analyzed for their mass fractions of Ga, Ge, Nb, In, REEs, and Ta (grain size fraction < 20 µm). Possible regional differences were investigated in order to determine preliminary reference values for these regions. Throughout the investigated time period, only minor variations in the mass fractions were observed and both regions did not show significant differences. Calculated local enrichment factors ranging from 0.6 to 2.3 for all TC

SUBMITTER: Klein O 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9079029 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature