The sources and sinks of ( radio) nuclides in Long Island Sound.

Natural and man-made radionuclides have been used to examine aspects of natural sedimentary and human processes in the Sound. Trace metals (particularly Cu, Zu, Pb) are examined, in part using ²¹⁹Pb as a tracer, in the Connecticut River, New Haven harbour, coastal salt marshes, sediments of the Sound and tissue of mussels and oysters. Use of ⁷Be and ²³⁴Th with 54 and 24 half day lives demonstrates rapid scavenging of nuclides and metals from solution onto sediments in Long Island Sound. There is also rapid homogenisation of fine sediments by biota shown by ²³⁴Th mixing.-I.N.McCave