Geochemical mobility of arsenic in the surficial waters from Argentina

ROBLES, ALICIA DANIELA; POLIZZI, PAULA; ROMERO, MARÍA BELÉN; CHIODI BOUDET, LEILA NATALIA; MEDICI, SANDRA; COSTAS, AGUSTÍN; GERPE, MARCELA

Environmental Earth Sciences

Springer- Verlag

Lugar: Berlin; Año: 2016 vol. 75

1866-6280

The presence of arsenic (As) in surface water constitutes an important environmental risk, where mobility and adsorption processes are responsible for its behavior in the sediment?water interface. Therefore, the assessment of adsorption, mobility and water availability of arsenic in freshwater sediments, with agricultural, livestock and urban soil uses was performed. Arsenic concentrations in sediments ranged from 5.4 to 15.9 mg kg-1 (total) and 2.8 to 6.5 mg kg-1 (labile), and those of iron and manganese were 11,563?23,500 and 140.6?662.1 mg kg-1, respectively. The As levels in water were significantly lower than those of sediments. Results would suggest that As co-precipitationand adsorption on Fe oxides are probably the major route of immobilization, determining its low lability. Manganese did not present an outstanding contribution to the retention, and cation-exchange capacity, pH andorganic matter of sediments did not show an influence on the mobility of As.