Abstract
Pollution with copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), and nickel (Ni) heavy metals of the surface sediments collected from three semi-closed East Mediterranean Gulfs, namely Kavala, Strymonikos, and Ierissos Gulfs, North Aegean Sea, Greece, was investigated to evaluate potential benthic ecological risks. The mean concentrations of the studied metals decrease according to the order: Zn > Pb > Cr > Ni > Cu (176.50, 166.23, 127.41, 43.12, and 33.64 mg kg−1 dry weight). Quality indicators and possible ecological risks for metals in surface sediments were evaluated at 60 sampling sites of these three gulfs using the contamination factor (CF), the contamination degree (CD), the pollution load index (PLI), the geoaccumulation index (Igeo), the potential risk factor (PRFi), and the potential ecological risk index (PERI). Based on Igeo, the Ierissos Gulf sampling sites IER 2, 3, 7, and 9 exhibit moderate Pb pollution, whereas the sampling sites IER 6 and 8 show moderate to strong and strong Pb pollution, respectively. Based on the PRFi and PERI, the studied heavy metals did not pose any significant environmental risks for most of the investigated sites except IER 6 and 8 sampling sites, which may pose considerable environmental risk for Pb. To evaluate potential sources for each metal, multivariate techniques including hierarchical cluster analysis and ANOVA were used.
Highlights
Benthic habitats such as coastal zone sediments play an important role in the marine environment.Surface sediment contamination is one of the most important quality indicators for the assessment of potential ecological risks in coastal marine ecosystems
The results of the various methods for calculating heavy metal enrichment in sediments and possible environmental risks from three neighboring gulfs in North Aegean Sea demonstrate that sediments of two sites in Ierissos Gulf (IER 6 and 8) located in the vicinity of the ore unloading terminal of the mining operations (‘flotation’) in Ierissos Gulf (Stratoni Bay) and sediments of the site KAV
IER 6 and IER 8 surface sediments from the Ierissos Gulf, as well as KAV 13 sediment from the Kavala Gulf showed the maximum values for contamination factor (CF), contamination degree (CD), pollution load index (PLI), PRFi, and potential ecological risk index (PERI) indexes, which means that the above sampling sites were the most severely polluted locations by the metals Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, and
Summary
Benthic habitats such as coastal zone sediments play an important role in the marine environment. Surface sediment contamination is one of the most important quality indicators for the assessment of potential ecological risks in coastal marine ecosystems. Heavy metals may be biologically up taken by marine organisms, reaching the bottom sediments after their death [6,7]. As a non-essential metal, acts usually as a potent toxic species, even at very low concentrations. Its bioaccumulation in tissues [8] leads to intoxication, dysfunction of a variety of organs, cellular and tissue damage, decreased fertility, and cell death [9,10,11,12,13,14,15]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
