International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.23, 214-228
214
Research Article Open Access
Assessment the Leachable Heavy Metals and Ecological Risk in the Surface
Sediments inside the Red Sea Ports of Egypt
Mohamed E.A. El-Metwally, Amany G. Madkour, Rasha R. Fouad, Lamiaa I. Mohamedein, Hamada A. Nour Eldine, Mahmoud A.
Dar, Khalid M. El-Moselhy
Division of Marine Environment, National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Egypt
Corresponding email:
International Journal of Marine Science, 2017, Vol.7, No.23 doi
Received: 15 May, 2017
Accepted: 05 Jun., 2017
Published: 13 Jun., 2017
Copyright © 2017
El-Metwally et al., This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article
:
El-Metwally M.E.A., Madkour A.G., Fouad R.R., Mohamedein L.I., Nour Eldine H.A., Dar M.A., and El-Moselhy Kh.M., 2017, Assessment the leachable
heavy metals and ecological risk in the surface sediments inside the Red Sea ports of Egypt, International Journal of Marine Science, 7(23): 214-228 (doi:
Abstract
The concentrations and distributions of the leachable heavy metals (Co, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cd, Mn, Pb and Fe) were investigated
in the fine sediment fractions (Ø3, Ø4 and Ø5) collected from the Egyptian Red Sea Harbors at Hurghada, Safaga and Qusier. The
three fractions were the essential heavy metal carriers and were formed the main constituent of the marine sediments with
percentages exceed 50% at the most of studied stations. The accumulation sequence of the metal carriers at Hurghada was Ø5 >Ø4>
Ø3, however at Safaga and Qusier, it was Ø5 >Ø3> Ø4. Fe and Mn showed the highest values at Safaga (7483 and 306.3 µg/g,
respectively) due to the high terrigenous inputs from the different shipment operations and the wastewater effluents. The highest
values of Zn, Cu, Ni and Pb were recorded in the marine area off Hurghada ports (330.38, 298.40, 91.4 and 101.02 µg/g,
respectively), which attributed to the coastal based activities at Hurghada shipyard and fishing berth. Meanwhile the highest levels of
Co and Cd were observed at the old port of Qusier (5.85 and 4.19 µg/g, respectively). The correlation coefficient and principal
component analysis (PCA) indicated the anthropogenic sources of Cu, Zn and Pb in front of Hurghada ports. Based on the SQGs, the
concentrations of Co, Fe, Mn, Zn and Pb were below the lowest effect level (LEL) with limited severity for Cd, Cu and Ni at
Hurghada shipyard but lower than the sever effect level (SEL). The principal component analysis (PCA) showed correlations
between Fe, Mn and partially Cd as well as the strong positive correlations for Cu with Zn and Pb suggesting common source of
contamination that is likely originated from the terrestrial materials associated with the shipping of ores and coastal activities.
According to the Enrichment factor (EF) and the geo-accumulation factor (Igeo), Cu and Pb were the highest enriched elements due
to anthropogenic contamination; consequently the studied ports were classified as moderately to highly contaminated by Cu and Pb at
Hurghada.
Keywords
Leachable heavy metals; Sediment fractions; PCA; Ecological risk; Red Sea ports
Introduction
The quantity and types of contaminants have rapidly increased in the marine environment during the last decades.
Most near-shore marine habitats worldwide have become under increasing pressure (McClanhan et al., 2000).
Pollution with heavy metals is one of the global environmental problems because of their toxicity, environmental
persistence, non-biodegradable nature and incorporation into food chains (Förstner and Wittman, 1983; Gargouri
et al., 2011). For that reason, a lot of effort is expanded to assess their availability, toxicity and ecological risk to
marine organisms (Salem et al., 2014).
The Red Sea belongs to the category of land-locked seas that have very restricted water exchange (Idris et al.,
2007); this partial isolation condition makes this body of water vulnerable to impact of land-based pollution. For
long time, the Red Sea environment was regarded relatively unpolluted (Hanna and Muir, 1990). In recent years,
heavy metals contamination was observed in many locations associated with oil production, wastewater discharge,
building and landfilling along the coastline, navigation and shipping operations (Madkour and Dar, 2007;
El-Metwally et al., 2017). However, the most significant source of anthropogenic pollution in marine system
usually related to ports due to dredging, repairing, raw materials shipping, loading, effluent discharge, and other
land based and maritime activities (Galkus et al., 2012).
