Cd, Cr, Cn, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn content in sediments from the Venice lagoon

Total concentration of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Pb and Zn and their partition in to three fractions of different lability was achieved on sediment samples c ollected in the Venice lagoon during 4 sampling campaigns from 1992 to 1994 . The total metal content was determined after microwave-heated acid digest ion by FAAS or HGA-AAS. A sequential extraction scheme was adopted to subdi vide the metals into three fractions: reducible, oxidisable and residual. The results are compared critically with those from the literature to ident ify particularly polluted zones. Multivariate statistical methods were then used to evaluate the homogeneity of the results in relation to the samplin g sites.