Metal pollution records in core sediments of some Red Sea coastal areas, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Abstract

In the last three decades, the industrial and human activities in the coastal area of Saudi Arabia have increased dramatically and resulted in the continuous invasion of different types of pollutants including heavy metals. Seven sediment cores were collected from three major industrialized areas; Jeddah, Rabigh and Yanbu, along the coast of Saudi Arabia to determine the spatial and temporal distribution of metals and to assess the magnitude of pollution and their potential biological effects. Sediments were analyzed for texture, calcium carbonate contents, organic matter and metals (Al, Fe, Mn, Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn). Some metals like, Cr, Mn, Ni and Zn, were enriched in the upper 15 cm of core samples (recent deposition of sediments). Cadmium concentrations showed high fluctuations with depth and reverse pattern to that for Al, Fe and Mn which indicated land based sources of this element to the studied areas. Elevated concentrations of lead were recorded in the bottom layers of cores in Jeddah that indicated the most dramatic increase in usage of gasoline in early 1970s. The calculated contamination factors (CF's) were found in the following sequences: Cd > Pb > Ni > Cu > Zn > Cr > Mn for all studied areas. Results of Pollution Load Index (PLI) revealed that Jeddah is the most polluted area, followed by Rabigh while Yanbu is the least contaminated area. Except for Ni, the concentrations of most metals in the majority of sediment samples were believed to be safe for living organisms. As no data were available on the concentration of metals in core sediments in the coastal area of Saudi Arabia, the results of this study would serve as a baseline against which future anthropogenic effects can be assessed.

The Effect of Selenium and Lycopene on Oxidative Stress in Bone Tissue in Rats Exposed to Cadmium

“…Badr et al [1] indicated that pollution with heavy metals including cadmium increased in Jeddah, Rabeg and T. Al Ibrahim et al…”

Environmental assessment of Mangrove communities in Tarut Bay, Eastern Arabian Peninsula, based on multidisciplinary approach

“…International literature identifies many factors or indices to understand toxicity or polution levels associated with these heavy metals such as bioconcentration factors (BCF), pollution index (PI), integrated pollution index (IPI), and geo-accumulation index (Igeo) (Usman et al, 2013;Agoramoorthy et al, 2008). However, the PLI is one of the good established pollution indicators that has been commonly used to evaluate the quality of coastal sediment in Saudi Arabia (Badr et al, 2009) and other parts of the world such as France, USA and Ireland since 1979 (Wilson, 2003).…”

Heavy Metal Contamination and Risk Assessment in the Marine Environment of Arabian Sea, along the Southwest Coast of India

“…The assessment of the contamination extent by metals in sediments was further calculated using the Pollution Load Index (PLI) [40] with the heavy metal data and world shale average values of the respective metals [35,41,42]. It provides a summative indication of the overall level of heavy metal pollution in a particular sample.…”