Distribution and Enrichment of Heavy Metals in Recent Sediments of Safaga Bay, Egypt

Abstract

The present study was undertaken for assessing the level of heavy metals such as iron, manganese, zinc, copper, nickel, cadmium, lead, and cobalt in recent sediment samples of Safaga Bay, Egypt. Concentration of heavy metals in sediments shows significant variability and ranges from 863.37 to 1144.93 ppm for Fe, 64.29–586.8 ppm for Mn, 2.7–12.68 ppm for Zn, 3.01–7.2 ppm for Pb, 1.53–3.29 ppm for Ni, 0.55–1.57 ppm for Co, 0.16–1.37 ppm for Cu, and 0.22–0.4 ppm for Cd. Sediment pollution assessments were carried out using an enrichment factor and geoaccumulation index. The calculation of enrichment factor showed that Cd is enriched by 4.1 due to phosphate sources in Safaga Bay. The Geoaccumulation index results revealed that there are positive and negative correlations between Fe, Zn, Mn, Pb, Ni, Cu, Co, and Cd indicating that these metals have complicated geochemical behaviors.