Seasonal and Spatial Distribution of Soil Trace Elements around Kitchener Drain in the Northern Nile Delta, Egypt

Abstract

The pollution of agricultural soils, water and plants by trace elements (TEs) in the Nile Delta Region, Egypt, is of great importance. This study aimed to investigate the spatial and seasonal variation of some TEs in the agricultural area adjacent to Kitchener Drain and to evaluate the ecological risk posed by these elements using six indices. Soil and plant samples were collected from seven sites close to the drain, while water samples were collected from the corresponding sites inside the drain during three seasons (winter, spring and fall). The results showed that all studied TEs in the soil varied seasonally and spatially among the locations around the drain. Most of the studied elements in the soil were higher in the southern and middle area around the drain. All studied elements in the soil were also higher in the winter than other seasons. Nickel and lead were almost non-detected during all seasons in plant tissues, while other elements were higher in the winter than other seasons. In contrast to the soil and plant tissues, water samples demonstrated lower or non-detected levels of TEs. The results also indicated that the values for the risk assessment indices differed among the studied TEs. Therefore, there is a risk of increasing the concentration of some metals in the study area due to anthropogenic pollution from the adjacent polluted drain through irrigation with contaminated water and spreading of contaminated dredged materials on agricultural fields.

Phytoremediation Perspectives of Seven Aquatic Macrophytes for Removal of Heavy Metals from Polluted Drains in the Nile Delta of Egypt

“…The investigated drains contained a higher level of Cd, but lower levels of Ni and Pb, than other drains of the Nile Delta, such as the Kitchener drain that had 4.10 mg kg −1 of Cd, 68.7 mg kg −1 of Ni, and 83.4 mg kg −1 of Pb [ 9 ]. Furthermore, the data of this study indicated that the mean values of the estimated heavy metals were lower than that reported by [ 40 ] for three drains (Elhoks, El-Shakhlouba and Drain 7), [ 45 ] for the Kitchener Drain, and [ 47 ] for contaminated wetlands in Egypt. In addition, Eid et al [ 48 ] recorded 11.9–12.6 mg kg −1 of Ni and 12.7–13.7 mg kg −1 of Pb in the sediment of Burullus Lake of Egypt, which tended to be lower than that estimated in this study.…”

“…In this context, sewage sludge, synthetized fertilizers, paints, dyes, electroplating, steel industries, batteries, pipes, pesticides, soaps, antimicrobial agents, fuel combustion, etc. likely greatly contribute to the raised levels of the studied heavy metals in the studied drains of the Nile River in Egypt [ 19 , 24 , 26 , 40 , 45 ]. On the other hand, the low concentrations of Cd, Ni, and Co might suggest a probable sole natural origin.…”

New Pollution Challenges in Groundwater and Wastewater Due to COVID-19

“…Several approaches have been adapted to decontaminate polluted aquatic environments from HMs and organic pollutants (Ajiboye et al 2021) using techniques such as biochar , nano zero valent iron (Sliječpević et al 2021), and clays (Elshazly et al 2019). Other pollutants may cause serious threats to human health and ecosystems when they reach aquatic environments, including nanoparticles (Turan et al 2019;Souza et al 2021), antibiotics Xu et al 2021), microplastics (Ma et al 2020;Tang et al 2020;Pan et al 2021;Wang et al 2021), bisphenols Šauer et al 2021), retinoic acids (Yeung et al 2020), perfluoroalkylated acids (Groffen et al 2021), heavy metals (Aitta et al 2019;Karaouzas et al 2021), personal care products Lu et al 2021), antineoplastic agents (Yadav et al 2021) and COVID-19 (Kumar et al 2020a;Steffan et al 2020;Lachrich et al 2021). On the other hand, during lockdowns to combat COVID-19, the quality of surface water (Yunus et al 2020) and air (Guatam, 2020) are expected to improve.…”

“…The freshwater ecosystem includes aquatic habitats that are highly prone to pollution due to the intensive interactions between these habitats and humans (Verma, 2020). Heavy metals (HMs) are of special concern, being important inorganic pollutants that cause many problems through their toxicity as well as being non-degradable and therefore persistent in nature (Aitta et al 2019;Verma 2020). The presence of organic pollutants and pathogens can also cause major problems (Brevik et al 2020).…”

Low Cost and Eco-Friendly Removal of Toxic Heavy Metal from Industrial Wastewater

“…In addition, water bodies' contamination by HMs through discharging industrial wastewater is a worldwide environmental issue that needs to be properly addressed. Rapid industrialization has seriously contributed to the release of potentially toxic HMs to water streams (Ahmaruzzaman 2011;Reddy et al 2011;Islam et al 2016;Saha and Rahman 2018;Aitta et al, 2019;Shahedi et al 2020;Eldamaty et al, 2021). Heavy metals such as Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, and Zn are among the most common inorganic contaminants found in industrial wastewater (Reddy et al 2011).…”