Quality Indicators and Possible Ecological Risks of Heavy Metals in the Sediments of three Semi-closed East Mediterranean Gulfs.

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 pote

SUBMITTER: Stamatis N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6632002 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature