Before you download

This report is available as a PDF file. You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer to view PDF files. Please note these are large files. We recommend you save the PDFs on to your computer/network before attempting to open or print them.

If you are unable to access the report, please email us or phone 61 (0)8 8920 1110 to organise a suitable alternative format.

Use of plastic enclosures in determining the effects of heavy metals added to Gulungul Billabong

Technical Memoranda 12
Hart BT, Jones MJ and Bek P
Supervising Scientist, 1985
ISSN 0810-9532
ISBN 0 644 01293 5

PDF file

Use of plastic enclosures in determining the effects of heavy metals added to Gulungul Billabong (PDF - 354 KB)

About this document

Plastic enclosures placed in Gulungul Billabong were used to investigate the behaviour of heavy metals added to billabong waters. One metre diameter enclosures were apparently too small because they did not simulate the dissolved oxygen profiles observed in the billabong. Three metre diameter enclosures were better, showing dissolved oxygen and temperature profiles which were similar to those in the billabong.

Heavy metals added to one of the large enclosures caused observable changes in the algal populations. There was, however, considerable uncertainty about which changes were brought about by the added metals and which were due to natural causes.

The added heavy metals, manganese, zinc and copper, were all rapidly lost from the water column to the sediments. The manganese was reduced to ambient levels in approximately 10-15 days while the zinc and copper concentrations were reduced less rapidly but were near ambient concentrations by the end of the four-week study. The loss of heavy metals was mainly by association of the added ionic metal with particulate matter, which then settled out.