Sedimentary Archives Reveal the Concealed
History of Micropollutant Contamination
in the Seine River Basin
Sophie Ayrault, Michel Meybeck, Jean-Marie Mouchel, Johnny Gaspéri,
Laurence Lestel, Catherine Lorgeoux, and Dominique Boust
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
2 Long-Term Reconstruction of Past Contamination Trajectories Based on River
Sedimentary Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
2.1 Conceptual Steps for the Study of Contaminants in Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
2.2 Contamination Fluxes Estimated from Floodplain Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
2.3 Circulation of Contaminants Within River Basins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
3 The Seine River Basin and Its Contamination by Micropollutants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
3.1 The Seine River Basin: A Sensitive Territory Under High Pressures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
3.2 Regulatory Surveys Failed to Assess Micropollutants (1971–2006) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
3.3 Spatial Position of Sedimentary Archives Within the Seine River Basin . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
3.4 Core Dating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
4 The Evolution of the Seine River Basin Contamination (1910–2015) Unveiled from
Sediment Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
4.1 Temporal Evolution of Persistent Organic Pollutants at the Basin Outlet
and in the Estuary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
The copyright year of the original version of this chapter was corrected from 2019 to 2020.
A correction to this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2020_667
S. Ayrault (*)
Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire LSCE, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
e-mail: sophie.ayrault@lsce.ipsl.fr
M. Meybeck, J.-M. Mouchel, and L. Lestel
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, EPHE, UMR Metis, Paris, France
J. Gaspéri
Université Paris-Est, Laboratoire LEESU, Champs-sur-Marne, France
C. Lorgeoux
Univ Lorraine, CNRS, GeoRessources, Nancy, France
D. Boust
IRSN, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, Laboratoire de Radioécologie de
Cherbourg-Octeville (LRC), Cherbourg, France
Nicolas Flipo, Pierre Labadie, and Laurence Lestel (eds.), The Seine River Basin,
Hdb Env Chem (2021) 90: 269–300, https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2019_386,
© The Author(s) 2020, corrected publication 2020, Published online: 3 June 2020
269
History of Micropollutant Contamination
in the Seine River Basin
Sophie Ayrault, Michel Meybeck, Jean-Marie Mouchel, Johnny Gaspéri,
Laurence Lestel, Catherine Lorgeoux, and Dominique Boust
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 271
2 Long-Term Reconstruction of Past Contamination Trajectories Based on River
Sedimentary Archives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
2.1 Conceptual Steps for the Study of Contaminants in Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
2.2 Contamination Fluxes Estimated from Floodplain Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 274
2.3 Circulation of Contaminants Within River Basins . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
3 The Seine River Basin and Its Contamination by Micropollutants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
3.1 The Seine River Basin: A Sensitive Territory Under High Pressures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
3.2 Regulatory Surveys Failed to Assess Micropollutants (1971–2006) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
3.3 Spatial Position of Sedimentary Archives Within the Seine River Basin . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
3.4 Core Dating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
4 The Evolution of the Seine River Basin Contamination (1910–2015) Unveiled from
Sediment Cores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
4.1 Temporal Evolution of Persistent Organic Pollutants at the Basin Outlet
and in the Estuary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
The copyright year of the original version of this chapter was corrected from 2019 to 2020.
A correction to this chapter can be found at https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2020_667
S. Ayrault (*)
Université Paris-Saclay, Laboratoire LSCE, CEA-CNRS-UVSQ, Gif-sur-Yvette, France
e-mail: sophie.ayrault@lsce.ipsl.fr
M. Meybeck, J.-M. Mouchel, and L. Lestel
Sorbonne Université, CNRS, EPHE, UMR Metis, Paris, France
J. Gaspéri
Université Paris-Est, Laboratoire LEESU, Champs-sur-Marne, France
C. Lorgeoux
Univ Lorraine, CNRS, GeoRessources, Nancy, France
D. Boust
IRSN, Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire, Laboratoire de Radioécologie de
Cherbourg-Octeville (LRC), Cherbourg, France
Nicolas Flipo, Pierre Labadie, and Laurence Lestel (eds.), The Seine River Basin,
Hdb Env Chem (2021) 90: 269–300, https://doi.org/10.1007/698_2019_386,
© The Author(s) 2020, corrected publication 2020, Published online: 3 June 2020
269