## 3 Results
### Metal(loid) Concentrations  
#### 3.2.1 Einsied Reservoir  
The median metal(loid) concentrations of the Einsied Reservoir sediments exceeded the geogenic background values for Cd, Hg, Ni, Zn and Co [43] (Table 2). The element concentrations of the brook sediments showed the same tendency toward elevated values, including the concentrations of Cu but with the exception of Hg. The measured median element concentrations in the soil samples were generally lower, and only slightly elevated concentrations were found for Hg, Pb and Co (Table 3). Sediment core ES-I (Figure 5), located near the inflow of the Stadtguttal Brook, showed a simultaneous decrease in metal(loid) concentrations, pH value and organic matter beyond a depth of 15 cm, coinciding with the transition of lacustrine sediments to sediments of the former floodplain. Core ES-II, sampled from the middle of the reservoir, showed a strong enrichment for most of the metal(loid)s between 10 and 15 cm depth. Cores sampled near the dam (i.e., ES-S, ES-B and ES-III) were characterised by mostly lower concentrations and by less pronounced vertical variations in metal(loid) concentrations as exemplified by core ES-S.  
ES-I contained the highest concentrations of Hg (mean: 0.71 mg/kg; median: 0.82 mg/kg). The highest concentrations of Co (mean: 40.7 mg/kg; median: 41.2 mg/kg) and As (mean: 32.7 mg/kg; median: 31.2 mg/kg) were present in the core ES-II. ES-III had the highest mean concentrations of V (64.6 mg/kg), Cr (53.5 mg/kg), Ni (78.4 mg/kg) and Zn (433 mg/kg). The catchment soils of the Einsiedel Reservoir (Figure 6) tended to have higher concentrations of V, Pb, Cu, Hg and As in topsoil areas, while the concentrations of Cr, Fe, Co and Ni were mostly higher in subsoils. The brook sediments were characterised by distinctively higher concentrations of Cd, Co, Cu and Zn, while As and Pb reached averagely higher concentrations in topsoils. \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline  & \multicolumn{6}{c}{**Geogenic Background Values (Median) (mg/kg) for Einsied Reservoir Sediments (LfULG 2015, [43])**} \\
**As** & **Cd** & **Cr** & **Cu** & **Hg** & **Ni** & **Pb** & **Zn** & **Co** & **V** \\ \hline
65 & 0.13 & 34 & 18 & 0.14 & 19 & 86 & 68 & 6.6 & 53 \\ \hline \multicolumn{8}{c}{Metal(loid)s (median \(\pm\) average absolute deviation) in sediments of the Einsiedel Reservoir (mg/kg), \(n\) = 18} \\ \hline
24.7 \(\pm\) 10.2 & **6.7 \(\pm\) 4.3** & **34.7 \(\pm\) 8.4** & **20.9 \(\pm\) 8.6** & **0.57 \(\pm\) 0.23** & **49.0 \(\pm\) 24.3** & - & 283 \(\pm\) 153 & **31.4 \(\pm\) 13.9** & 47.5 \(\pm\) 13.2 \\ \hline \multicolumn{8}{c}{Metal(loid)s (mean \(\pm\) average absolute deviation) in brook sediments of the Einsied Reservoir (mg/kg), \(n\) = 3} \\ \hline
16.4 \(\pm\) 1.3 & **7.5 \(\pm\) 3.1** & 29.7 \(\pm\) 2.1 & **34.8 \(\pm\) 5.9** & **0.19 \(\pm\) 0.05** & **127 \(\pm\) 33.8** & 43.9 \(\pm\) 1.5 & **195 \(\pm\) 47.3** & **32.3 \(\pm\) 6.9** & **55.7 \(\pm\) 2.1** \\ \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Comparison between the medians of geogenic background values for Saxon topsoils on phyllite (land use: forestry) [43] and the measured metal(loid) concentrations in the reservoir and brook sediments of the Einsiedel Reservoir. Values in bold exceed the background concentrations.