A short review of heavy metal pollution status in Musa fjord sediments

Abstract

The ecological importance of Musa fjord has made it one of the remarkable marine ecosystems in southwestern of Iran. The fast development in terms of industrialization has exposed the Musa fjord to a serious threat from the effect of pollutants including heavy metals. This study aims to assess the temporal trend of heavy metal content in Musa fjord sediments and highlighting hot spot zones, the zones with high levels of heavy metals, based on the processing of the previous published data. The results showed an increasing temporal trend for Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cd, and Hg (7.20, 3.36, 3.32, 0.44, 0.34, and 0.29 mg kg−1 year−1 respectively). The highest concentrations of Hg, Cd, and Cu were found in Pet Zone, which can be due to discharging petrochemical industries and chloralkali plants sewages and painting ships. The highest concentration of Pb was observed in Mouth, which is probably due to the shipping routes. The highest concentrations of Zn in Zangi might be attributed to nearing the jetties for loading mineral materials. And the highest concentrations of Ni in Ghazale might be explained by loading and unloading petroleum. Hg and Ni were the most critical pollutants in this area and have frequently adverse biological effects on aquatic organisms. Ghanam, Ghazale, Pet Zone, and Mouth accounted for the highest values of PLI, mCd, RI, M-ERM-Q, and STd indexes. Results from cluster analysis and principal component analysis indicated that Zn originated from natural sources; Cu, Ni, and Pb originated from anthropogenic sources; and Cd and Hg also derived from other human activities while implied a unique source.