ALBERT

Description: Particular heavy metals e.g. zinc serve as micronutrients for eukaryotic life and play an important role for cellular metabolism, growth of organisms, reproduction and enzymatic activity. They occur naturally in the environment as trace ingredient in soils, water, rocks, plants and animals. However, in higher concentrations, most heavy metals become toxic and have serious hazard effects on marine biota. Furthermore, they are highly persistent in the marine environment and can be hardly degraded by organisms. Especially coastal environments act as natural catchment basins for anthropogenic pollutants because these areas are highly affected by industry, agriculture and urban runoff. Therefore, it is vitally important to assess past spatial and temporal distribution patterns and to compare those with recent pollution in order to evaluate contemporary emission reduction measures. An emerging paleo-tool is the heavy metal incorporation into foraminiferal shells calcite, which offers monitoring of anthropogenic footprints on the environmental system. Heavy metal records in foraminiferal tests along a sediment core from the North Sea track pollution events of local (e.g. shipyard, ironworks and metallurgy) and global (e.g. market cycles) origin. We analysed the heavy metal concentrations in tests of Ammonia batava (Mn, Zn, Cd Cu etc.) by laser ablation ICP – MS measurements. These metals reveal the pollution history of the North Sea during the last 500 years with focus on the Early Modern Period.