Fig 1.
Study area, Zhanjiang Bay and sampling stations in ZJB.
Table 1.
Testing results of various quality-control measurements (n = 3).
Fig 2.
Spatial variations of environmental parameters in winter and summer.
(a) Temperature; (b) Salinity; (c) pH; (d) DO; (e) SPM; (f) Chl a.
Table 2.
The summary of heavy metal concentrations (μg L-1) in the seawater of ZJB and other coastal areas.
The National Standard of China for Seawater Quality Guidelines are also shown for comparison.
Fig 3.
Spatial variations of heavy metals in seawater in winter and summer.
(a) Fe; (b) Mn; (c) Cr; (d) Ni; (e) Cu; (f) Zn; (g) Cd; (h) Pb.
Table 3.
The summary of heavy metal concentrations (μg g-1 dry weight for all elements except when otherwise noted) in suspended particulate matter of ZJB and other coastal areas.
Fig 4.
Spatial variations of heavy metals in suspended particulate matter in winter and summer.
(a) Fe; (b) Mn; (c) Cr; (d) Ni; (e) Cu; (f) Zn; (g) Cd; (h) Pb.
Table 4.
The summary of heavy metal concentrations (μg g-1 dry weight for all elements except when otherwise noted) in the surface sediments of ZJB and other coastal zones.
The average upper continental crust values and related sediment quality guidelines are also shown for comparison purposes.
Fig 5.
Spatial variations of heavy metals in surface sediments in winter and summer.
(a) Fe; (b) Mn; (c) Cr; (d) Ni; (e) Cu; (f) Zn; (g) Cd; (h) Pb.
Table 5.
The summary of partitioning coefficients (log(Kd)) in ZJB and other areas in the world.
Fig 6.
Spatial variations of log(Kd) between dissolved and particulate phases in winter and summer.
(a) Fe; (b) Mn; (c) Cr; (d) Ni; (e) Cu; (f) Zn; (g) Cd; (h) Pb.
Table 6.
Pearson correlation matrix for metals in different phases and related environmental parameters.
Table 7.
Pearson correlation matrix for partition coefficients and related environmental parameters.
Table 8.
Loadings of experimental variables on significant principal components for the datasets from ZJB.