DIURNAL VARIATION IN THE DISTRIBUTION OF HEAVY METALS IN SUSPENSIONS FLOATING IN ESTUARINE ZONES

Abstract

The paper reports on a study which shows that there is a diurnal variability in the distribution of suspended forms of heavy metals; the temporal variation in the concentration of suspended matter and in the suspended forms of manganese, nickel and iron is approximated by a periodic function with a period of 8 to 10 hours; the temporal variation of the suspended forms of copper and zinc is correlated with variation in biomass and is approximated by a periodic function with a period of about 12 hours; in the estuarine zones, the factor most strongly affecting the distributions of suspended iron and of suspended matter is the river discharge.