Prediction of principal metal binding solid phases in estuarine sediments from color image analysis

A novel application of image analysis technology to the semiquantitative de termination of the strong metal-binding phases of hydrous ferric oxides and acid-volatile sulfides in muddy estuarine sediments is presented. Sediment cores were split in the laboratory, photographed in cross-section, and sub sampled for solid-phase analyses. The images were processed using commercia lly available software packages. Concentrations of FeOOH and AVS were found to he linearly related to elementary color parameters (saturation and inte nsity, respectively) at corresponding points on the images. Spatially resol ved information on metal-binding capacity can thereby be estimated from suc h images; selected depth profiles are generated as examples.