No abstract

Heavy metals are elements, whose density is greater than water. They are generated from our environment. Rocks, sediments, plants, water and aerosol particles represent the carriers of heavy metals. An accumulated amount of heavy metal in the body, either by inhalation, food or drinking water, can cause an adverse health effect to human. The Benue river passed through the town of makurdi, was high population of the inhabitant of Benue State dwells. The industrial and agricultural activities carried out in this region, increase the concentration of heavy metals. This may result to adverse health effect on the inhabitant of Makurdi. The objectives of this work were to determine the heavy metal concentration and its site contaminations along the bank of river Benue, Makurdi. An inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES) was used to determine the heavy metals concentration. The metals concentrations (Iron, Copper, Manganese, Lead, Zinc, Chromium, Arsenic, and Cadmium) of the three stations were found. This ranges from 3.55 -9454.0 mg/kg, 0.20 -8928.0 mg/kg and 2.80 -13,657 mg/kg for stations 1, 2 and 3. With Fe recorded as the highest concentration in the sediment, this value is compared with the World Health Organisation (WHO) and World Surface Rock Average (WSRA) standard. The assessment on contamination status of heavy metals in the riverbank, showed low degree of contamination in stations 1 and 2, and moderate degree in station 3. The degree of enrichment to heavy metals in all the stations is deficient to minimal. The evaluation of the results of pollution load index (PLI) from this present study indicated PLI < 1 for station 2, and PLI > 1 in stations 1 and 3. Hence stations 1 and 3 are polluted, while station 2 is not polluted with heavy metals.

The need to study the variations of climate change in Nigeria becomes necessary at a time the universe and Nigerians, in particular are passing through challenges due to climate change as a result of emissions. The atmospheric gases have a greater transparency for incoming solar radiation, while the outgoing are trapped and re-emitted back to the Earth. This study correlated between global solar radiation and greenhouse gases over Nigeria using neural network. The results showed that positive correlations exist between solar radiations: CO2 and CH4 respectively, while exhibiting negative correlations with tropospheric ozone and water vapour. Consequently, an increase in 0.1017, 0.1350 units of CO2 and CH4, respectively could enhance the trapping and transmission of solar radiation in the atmosphere, while an increase of 1.1234 and 0.1530 units of tropospheric ozone and water vapour could cause absorption of solar radiation. The trapped energy is re-radiated back to the Earth, this warms up the atmosphere and the surface of the Earth resulting to global warming. Coefficient of determination revealed that 18%, 30%, 20%, and 29%, of the variances of solar radiation being studied is explained by the variance of the water vapour, tropospheric O3, CO2, and CH4, respectively.