Stability of nickel in olivine sand covering contaminated seabed, Kirkebukten test area, Puddefjorden

Project title

Stability of nickel in olivine sand covering contaminated seabed, Kirkebukten test area, Puddefjorden 

Supervisors

Ingunn H. Thorseth, Haflidi Haflidason, Tina Kutti (Institute for Marine Research), Johannes Vik Seljebotn (COWI) 

Project description

The seabed in Bergen harbour is highly contaminated. Therefore, the municipality has carried out various covering-measures to improve the environmental conditions. To gain experience about the efficiency of different types of materials, four test areas were established in Kirkebukten in 2011. In one of these, olivine sand was used to cover the seabed. Olivine naturally contains minor amount of nickel that could potentially leak into the environment and enter the food chain. The mobility of nickel is assumed to be controlled by the (bio)geochemical processes and environment in the covering layer and the sediments underneath. In this project, the stability of nickel in the olivine test area will be examined and the (bio)geochemical environment and benthic fauna analysed and compared to data the seabed outside the test area.