Distribution of heavy metals in water, particulate matter and sediments of Gediz River (Eastern Aegean)

Abstract

The present paper is the first document of heavy metal levels in surficial sediment, water and particulate matter of the Gediz River collected from five different sites in August, October 1998, February, June 1999. The present work attempts to establish the status of distribution and environmental implications of metals in the sediment, water and particulate matter and their possible sources of derivation. The concentrations of mercury ranged 0.037-0.81, 120-430; lead 0.59-1.5, 190-8,100; copper 0.24-1.6, 30-180; zinc 0.19-2.9, 10-80; manganese 30-170, 20-490; nickel 0.39-9.0, 100-510; iron 1.3-687, 100-6,200 microg/l in water and particulate matter, respectively. The maximum values in water were generally obtained in summer periods due to industrial and agricultural activities at Muradiye. The particulate metal concentrations also generally showed increased levels from the upper Gediz to the mouth of the river. Calculation of metal partition coefficients shows that the relative importance of the particulate and the water phases varies in response to water hydrochemistry and suspended solid content, but that most elements achieve a conditional equilibrium in the Gediz River. The metals ranged between Hg: 0.25-0.49, Cr: 59-814, Pb: 38-198, Cu: 15-148, Zn: 34-196, Mn: 235-1,371, Ni: 35-175, and Fe: 10,629-72,387 mg/kg in sediment. The significant increase of metals found in Muradiye suggested a pollution effect, related to anthropogenic wastes. Also, relatively high concentrations of Ni and Mn occurred in sampling site upstream, due to geochemical composition of the sediments. Maximum values of contamination factor for metals were noticed for sediment of Muradiye. The sampling stations have very high degree of contamination indicating serious anthropogenic pollution.

Spatial Distribution and Contamination Assessment of Heavy Metals in Surface Sediments of the Caofeidian Adjacent Sea after the Land Reclamation, Bohai Bay

“…Heavy metal contamination is a major issue in marine environment due to the toxicity, persistence, nonbiodegradability, and bioaccumulation [1][2][3]. After entering food chain, they can cause potential threat to human beings and other organisms [4].…”

“…In aquatic systems, sediments are the main sink of various contaminants discharged from industrial and agricultural processes [5][6][7], and they are regarded as an effective archive recording heavy metal contamination [2,8,9]. To date, a large number of studies have reported the accumulation of heavy metals in the sediments of aquatic ecosystems [3,[10][11][12][13]. The main reason is that once the conditions of sedimentary environment change, heavy metals are apt to release into water from the sediments [14][15][16].…”

Basin-scale comprehensive assessment of cadmium pollution, risk, and toxicity in riverine sediments of the Haihe Basin in north China

“…A number of studies have shown that metal contamination of sediments is increasing, posing a serious threat to the health of aquatic systems globally (Kucuksezgin et al, 2008;Nobi et al, 2010;Zhang et al, 2014). Specifically, there is a great deal of concern over cadmium (Cd), a highly toxic metal (Gao et al, 2013;Nemati et al, 2011), found to occur in significant quantities in the sediments of many areas, such as Bohai Bay and Zhu River in China, and the Tibagi River in Brazil (Galunin et al, 2014;Gao and Chen, 2012;Tang et al, 2014).…”

Geochemistry of Core Sediments from Tropical Mangrove Region of Tamil Nadu: Implications on Trace Metals

“…Sediments exhibit a great capacity to accumulate trace metals at even low concentrations in aquatic environments [10]. Most trace metals in the aquatic ecosystem are associated with sediments, especially bottom sediments [11,12].…”