Content of the doctoral dissertation:

The central theme of the PhD thesis is to determine the relationship between bedrock, past and present human activities and sediment composition in the Mura river system. The study will pay particular attention to the presence of conventional as well as technologically critical metals. Due to the geological and morphological diversity and the numerous past and present anthropogenic factors, we have chosen the Mura river catchment as the study area. The river basin has been the site of numerous mining centres in the past, especially for the extraction and processing of iron, copper, chromium and mercury ores, while the alluvial plains of the Mura River are often areas of intensive agriculture. The Mura River flows through industrial and urban centres, which are also a source of past and present pollution from traditional and modern pollutants.

As part of the PhD study, three types of sediments are sampled along the Mura River from its source in the Hohe Touren in Austria to the Slovenian/Croatian border: alluvial, suspended and riverbed sediments. The suspended sediments will be sampled in three separate work steps, as we want to compare their elemental composition in relation to the water regime. The determination of the elemental and mineralogical composition of all types of sample media and the identification of characteristic carriers of certain elements is carried out using three analytical methods: Scanning Electron Microscopy with Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (SEM/EDS), Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) and X-Ray Powder Diffraction (XRD). The study will determine the distribution of chemical elements with a focus on the technologically critical elements, the natural geochemical background of the sediments in the Mura catchment, the impact of past and present anthropogenic activities and the differences in the elemental composition of suspended matter in the high, medium and low flow regimes. In particular, the study will provide new insights into the distribution of technologically critical chemical elements released into the environment through the large-scale development and use of modern technologies.

The topic of the PhD thesis is closely related to the international project MURmap (Holistic geochemical tracking of inorganic pollutants in the Mur/Mura River catchment), which is funded by the Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency (ARIS) and the Austrian Science Fund (FWF).

 

Selected bibliography

Žibret, G., Čeplak, B., 2021. Distribution of Pb, Zn and Cd in stream and alluvial sediments in the area with past Zn smelting operations. Sci. Rep. 11, 17629. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-96989-y

Šajn, R., Ristović, I., Čeplak, B., 2022. Mining and metallurgical waste as potential secondary sources of metals-a case study for the West Balkan Region. Minerals 12, 1-23. https://doi.org/10.3390/min12050547