We found that dissolved Mn decreases steeply in the upper estuary due to precipitation by oxidation, but with concentrations lower than those published by Paucot and Wolast (1997).
Dissolved Zn is relatively high compared to Bayens et al (1998a) and comparable to the data from Van den Berg et al. (1984). At low salinity (S=0.3) the dissolved Zn concentration is already high, indicating that the solid sulphides of Zn are oxidised. This is in contrast with previous studies (Duinker et al., 1983; Zwolsman et al., 1997) that indicate that dissolved Zn concentrations are low in the upper estuary due to anoxia and increase with salinity when the system becomes oxidised. In our data a decline in dissolved Zn can be seen from S=15 to higher salinities, coinciding with a decrease in dissolved organic ligands and dissolved organic matter by dilution with seawater.
The ratio of the dissolved concentrations of Zn and Cd is displayed in relation to the salinity (Figure 2). This ratio shows a peak when the sulphide concentration in the water is between the values poising the solubility products of solid Zn and Cd sulphides. Going from anoxic to oxic conditions, Zn sulphides dissolve first, increasing the Zn/Cd ratio. When the Cd sulphides also dissolve, the ratio declines to 150. The ratio of dissolved Zn and Cd thus indicate the oxidation of the system by a peak in the ratio of Zn and Cd. These data show that the Scheldt system is hardly suffering from an anoxic regime since the peak is around our first sampling point, S=0.3.
There is not much recent data on dissolved Fe in the Scheldt. Duinker et al. (1983) presented dissolved Fe concentrations which were much higher, probably due to the higher organic load at that time (oxygen depletion up to S=15!) resulting in higher concentration of organic ligands.
Van den Berg et al. (1987) measured higher Fe concentrations than we did in the middle and lower estuary of 100 nM at S=14.4 and 400 nM at S=9. A decrease of dissolved Fe concentrations with time since the 1980s due to a concomitant decrease in organic matter (and thus in the dissolution of Fe) is the probable explanation. Another explanation might be the liquid-liquid extraction we used.