The study reports the results of a geochemical survey in a coastal area of northern Italy with focus on the distribution of chemical elements in near surface sediments as result of both sediment origin and anthropogenic activities. In addition to emphasizing the source-to-sink element dynamics in the area, the main purpose of this paper is to ascertain if anthropic presence could have altered the composition of near surface sediments in urban and industrial areas. We considered 173 sampling sites, and collected soil material from a depth of 90–110 cm. Major and trace elements assessment on milled 2 mm fraction was conducted using WDXRF for Al, As, Ba, Ca, Ce, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, K, La, Mg, Mn, Na, Nb, Ni, P, Pb, Rb, Si, Sr, Th, Ti, V, Y, Zn and Zr. In addition, Loss On Ignition (LOI) was determined. Principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) were performed for data interpretation.

The distribution of element concentration is heavily related to sediment origin. The major presence of Al, Fe, K, LOI, Mg, Nb, Rb and V characterizes alluvial plain sediments. These materials of Apenninic origin have a finer texture and a major presence of carbonates in respect to the other sediments of the area. Coastal sediments display a general wider range of variation in element concentrations (i.e. Al, Ca, Cr, K, Mg, Mn, P, Si, Ti and Zr) due to a dual origin. In particular, the greater Cr, Mn and Zr content is related to sediments enriched by heavy minerals (e.g. garnet, chromite, zircon) of Alpine origin, while the lesser concentrations trace back to Apenninic origin.

Near surface sediments of urban and industrial areas always contain higher Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations with respect to the same sediments not impacted by urban and industrial settlements. This is likely a consequence of the movement of materials made by men over the last 2000 years. These results suggest that the adopted depth of sampling for the calculation of background values might need to be increased in urban and industrial areas to reach unaltered near surface sediments.

该研究报告了意大利北部沿海地区的一项地球化学调查结果，重点是由于沉积物来源和人为活动而导致的近地表沉积物中化学元素的分布。除了强调该地区从源到汇的动力学外，本文的主要目的是确定人类的存在是否会改变城市和工业区近地表沉积物的组成。我们考虑了173个采样点，并收集了90-110 cm深度的土壤物质。使用WDXRF对磨碎的2毫米级分进行主要和微量元素评估，以测定铝，砷，钡​​，钙，铈，钴，铬，铜，铁，钾，镧，镁，锰，钠，铌，镍，磷，铅，Rb，Si，Sr，Th，Ti，V，Y，Zn和Zr。此外，还确定了燃烧失重（LOI）。

元素浓度的分布与沉积物成因密切相关。Al，Fe，K，LOI，Mg，Nb，Rb和V的主要存在是冲积平原沉积物的特征。这些亚平宁山脉的物质相对于该地区的其他沉积物具有较细的质地，并且主要存在碳酸盐。由于双重成因，沿海沉积物的元素浓度（即Al，Ca，Cr，K，Mg，Mn，P，Si，Ti和Zr）的变化范围通常较广。尤其是，较高的Cr，Mn和Zr含量与富含阿尔卑斯来源的重矿物（例如石榴石，铬铁矿，锆石）富集的沉积物有关，而浓度较低的追溯到亚平宁山脉。

与不受城市和工业住区影响的相同沉积物相比，城市和工业区的近地表沉积物始终含有较高的Cu，Pb和Zn浓度。这可能是由于过去2000年来男性制造的材料不断移动的结果。这些结果表明，在城市和工业区可能需要增加采用的采样深度来计算背景值，以达到未改变的近地表沉积物。