International Journal of Marine Science 2016, Vol.6, No.26, 1-13
5
According to the local distribution of metals along the investigated area, it can recorded that Pb(II), Cu(II) and
Zn(II) ions exhibited their absolute highest value (51.12, 57.91 and 95.96 µg/g, respectively) at El-Zeitiya
Harbour (Station 2), with annual means of 46.93, 45.16 and 75.29 µg/g, respectively. This station is exposed to
pollution from oil refineries and shipping activities of petroleum tankers in addition to discharges from
neighboring industries and other human activities. El-Moselhy
et al
. (1999) indicated that the land based activities
and ships waiting in the area are the main sources of metal pollution in the northern part of the Gulf of Suez. In
this context, El-Moselhy and Gabal (2004) found that the highest values of metals were observed at stations
influenced by various pollution sources such as harbours and sewage and industrial drains. Accordingly, El-
Kabanon beach (Station 3) showed maximum concentration of Cd(II) ion (2.60 µg/g with annual mean of 2.46
µg/g). This station is influenced by the old sewage plant of the Suez City and effluent from thermo-power station
in addition to current water from the northern area of the Suez Bay all over the year. In contrast, the lowest
concentrations of Cd, Pb and Cu were recorded at Sand Beach Resort shore (Station 7), which is fare away from
any pollution sources. While, Zn(II) ion revealed its lowest value at station 3. The variations of Cd(II) and Cu(II)
ions within the different studied stations were significantly different (p = 0.0370 and 0.0080, respectively); while
Pb(II) and Zn(II) ions showed insignificant differences (p = 0.1438 and 0.0775, respectively). According to Post -
Hoc Comparisons of Means “Duncan test” (Table 2), it can be noticed that the low Cd(II) ion value in station 7
was the position responsible on the significant differences (p = 0.0063, 0.0134 and 0.0084 with St. 3, 5 and 6,
respectively). In contrast, high level of Cu(II) ion in station 2 was the liable that gave significant differences with
all other stations. In addition the station 2 showed significant differences than stations 3 and 7 for Pb(II) and
Zn(II) ions.
Table (1): Concentration of heavy metals and values of contamination factor (CF) in sediments collected from northern part of the
Gulf of Suez during 2014-2015.
Metals
Stations
Summer
Winter
Mean±SD
CF
Cd
St. 1
St. 2
St. 3
St. 4
St. 5
St. 6
St. 7
2.07
2.03
2.60
2.11
2.51
2.52
1.34
1.95
1.88
2.31
2.03
2.12
2.28
1.84
2.01±0.08
1.96±0.11
2.46±0.21
2.07±0.06
2.32±0.28
2.40±0.17
1.59±0.35
20.10
19.60
24.60
20.70
23.20
24.00
15.90
Pb
St. 1
St. 2
St. 3
St. 4
St. 5
St. 6
St. 7
27.62
51.12
26.28
32.21
33.39
35.59
17.82
15.53
42.74
6.23
20.19
11.49
23.57
5.74
21.58±8.55
46.93±5.93
16.26±14.18
26.20±8.50
22.44±15.49
29.58±8.50
11.78±8.54
1.46
3.17
1.10
1.77
1.52
2.00
0.80
Cu
St. 1
St. 2
St. 3
St. 4
St. 5
St. 6
St. 7
6.25
57.91
5.69
12.57
12.04
10.62
3.46
7.13
32.40
4.18
18.12
6.43
16.09
3.37
6.69±0.62
45.16±18.04
4.94±1.07
15.35±3.92
9.24±3.97
13.36±3.87
3.42±0.06
0.27
1.81
0.20
0.61
0.37
0.53
0.14
Zn
St. 1
St. 2
St. 3
St. 4
St. 5
St. 6
St. 7
34.97
54.61
14.69
49.94
36.36
35.05
18.52
49.13
95.96
14.79
88.01
31.49
74.88
16.00
42.05±10.01
75.29±29.24
14.74±0.07
68.98±26.92
33.93±3.44
54.97±28.16
17.26±1.78
0.81
1.45
0.28
1.33
0.65
1.06
0.33
