river sediments

heavy metals

pollution

valley morphology

fluvial processes

This paper examines the relations between the dispersal of sediment-borne heavy metals and changes in morphology of the Mała Panew River valley in southern Poland. Sediment samples were taken in 66 vertical profiles up to 60 cm deep, situated at different heights above a water table. Alluvial levels of similar width and height appear with different frequency along river banks within 7 selected 1km-long river valley reaches. Moreover, heavy metal concentrations at levels of similar height are similar throughout the Mała Panew valley. This suggests that both the width of the river valley over which sediment-associated heavy metals accumulated as well as the volume of these sediments stored within particular river reaches, change downstream. Generally, the wide, natural reaches of the river valley, which have been sinks for metal-associated sediments in the 20^th century, are an important secondary pollution source, whereas narrow valley reaches in which flow regulation caused incision of the river channel are mainly transition zones for the polluted sediments conveyed in the river valley.