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Heavy Metal Release from Marine Sediment: A Review of Simulation Devices, Influencing Factors and Kinetic Models
Tingting Yang, Weiguo Qian, Wenjuan Wang, Jinsheng Yang, Yuying Pan, Shuo Yu, Weiwei Fan, Wenqi Xu, Yang Xu, Haichun Zhang, Yiming Wang and Xiaoping Chai

Large-scale marine resource development and utilization projects will disturb sediment, cause sediment resuspension, and furtherly cause the release of heavy metals, threatening the safety of ecosystems and biodiversity. This study described the sources of heavy metals in marine sediment, sorted out the simulation devices of heavy metal release caused by the external disturbance and sediment resuspension, detailed the influencing factors and rules of heavy metal release, summarized the kinetic models of heavy metal release, pointed out the current research progress and problems of heavy metal release from sediment, and put forward suggestions. It is found that the current researches on the release of heavy metals in sediment are limited to indoor simulation, and the simulation disturbance devices cannot accurately judge the quantitative relationship between the simulated disturbance intensity under experimental conditions and the one under natural conditions, such as wind wave and current. Among them, particle entrainment simulator (PES) device, EROMES device and Y-type resuspension device are more suitable for simulating the hydrodynamic sediment resuspension process in shallow water. The annular flume device can better simulate the marine environment. Studies on the factors influencing the release of heavy metals mainly focus on the physical and chemical properties of sediment and overlying water conditions, among which the physical and chemical properties of sediment, dissolved oxygen (DO), redox potential (Eh) and pH of overlying water are the main regulatory factors for the release of heavy metals from sediment resuspension. Elovich model and double constant model have a wide range of application in describing the release kinetics of heavy metals. It is pointed out that in the future, in-situ test experiments combined with indoor physical model tests and numerical simulation can be carried out to build a dynamic model of heavy metal release from sediment that is closer to the natural situation, which can provide references for the study of heavy metal release in marine sediment caused by ocean engineering and the formulation of relevant protection and restoration schemes.

Keywords: heavy metals, sediment, simulation devices, influencing factors, release kinetics models