Most rivers worldwide are contaminated by various trace metals from different origins, which may be stored for considerable periods of time in depositional areas. Most of these studies are focused on the main river of a watershed and the tributaries are often neglected which can be important sources of contamination. The aim of this study was to reconstruct the anthropogenic activities that occurred in the Eure River, tributary of the Seine Estuary, since the 1940s using “legacy sediments”. The results showed that the temporal trends of trace metals were not related to detrital inputs and TOC variations but with the industrial history of the Eure River watershed. The high levels of Zn, Cu, and Ni during the 1950s and the 1960s, and the decrease with the decline of the probable main source of release showed the watershed reactivity to anthropogenic activities. The high levels of Pb during the 1990s and the 2000s showed that the watershed reacted immediately to anthropogenic pressures. The Pb levels remained important after the cease of industrial activity, showing that a resilience period is necessary for the system, and that interactions between human activities and the environment go beyond of the activities themselves.

世界各地的大多数河流都被来自不同来源的各种痕量金属污染，这些金属可能会在沉积区域中存储相当长的时间。这些研究大多集中在流域的主要河流上，而经常被忽视的支流可能是重要的污染源。这项研究的目的是使用“传统沉积物”重建自1940年代以来在塞纳河口支流Eure河中发生的人为活动。结果表明，痕量金属的时间趋势与碎屑输入和TOC的变化无关，而与Eure河流域的工业历史有关。在1950年代和1960年代，锌，铜和镍的含量很高，随着可能的主要释放源的减少而减少，这表明了对人为活动的分水岭反应性。在1990年代和2000年代，Pb含量很高，表明该流域对人为压力立即做出了反应。停止工业活动后，Pb的水平仍然很重要，这表明该系统需要一个恢复期，并且人类活动与环境之间的相互作用超出了活动本身。