Coastal and Estuary Waters

Two factors have a bearing on the concentrations of metals found in coastal and estuary waters: (1) any dilution effects of rivers on discharges into the seawater and (2) the concentrations of metals in such nonsaline water inputs. For example, if a river is heavily polluted with metals, then we would expect the metal concentrations in the river estuary to be higher than that of the open seawater.