Evaluating Contaminant Transport Using Lagrangian Sampling in the St. Lawrence River, Canada

Résumé du livre

Describes a sampling strategy to evaluate suspended sediment and contaminant fluxes in the St. Lawrence River. To overcome the logistical problems arising from the large scale of the system, samples were collected following a Lagrangian scheme according to which cross-sections were sampled in a downstream sequence, with the sampling interval approximating the time of travel between stations. The large width of the river, and imcomplete mixing of water from various sources, prevented estimating fluxes from single midstream samples. Samples were therefore taken at multiple verticals within a cross-section and analyzed separately. Preliminary analyses of the data show that the suspended sediment dynamics greatly affect contaminant fluxes in the St. Lawrence River. The study of the cross-sectional variability of sediment concentrations contributes much to understanding of dynamics of both suspended sediments and associated contaminants in large scale-rivers.