Measurement of shipwreck-derived waterborne trace metals using DGT samplers

However, for environments in which such indicator species do not occur naturally and cannot be deployed, alternative approaches for monitoring trace-metal pollution are required. Three years after the 2011 grounding of the MV Rena , diffusive gradients in thin films (DGT) samplers were deployed at Otaiti (the offshore reef where the Rena grounded) to assess levels of waterborne trace-metal contamination.

Although the probability of detecting waterborne contaminants within a dynamic open ocean reef environment would seem low, due to mixing and dilution, our analyses confirmed the presence of copper (≤0.43 vs ≤0.27 nmol kg −1 ), iron (≤6.3 vs ≤4.2 nmol kg −1 ), aluminium (≤8.9 vs ≤1.3 nmol kg −1 ), zinc (≤2.8 vs ≤2.0 nmol kg −1 ) and manganese (≤0.11 vs ≤0.09 nmol kg −1 ) at elevated concentrations in the Rena debris field relative to reference sites.