Evaluation of Urbanization Influences on Beach Sediment Contamination with Heavy Metals Along the Littoral Zone of Alexandria City, Egypt

IF 3.8 4区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution Pub Date : 2024-10-21 DOI:10.1007/s11270-024-07527-1

Mouataz T. Mostafa, Habash El-Nady, Ramadan M. Gomaa, Salman A. Salman, Ibrahim H. Khalifa

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Abstract

The western coastal area of Alexandria City, Egypt, faces significant environmental challenges due to heavy metal (HM) contamination in beach sediments, driven by intensive urbanization, tourism, commercial harbors, and industrial activities. Therefore, this study focuses on geochemically assessing HM levels in sediment samples from 28 sites and employed various descriptive and multivariate statistical approaches, pollution indices, and sediment quality guidelines (SQGs) to identify pollution hotspots, define contamination grades, and assess the quality of beach sediments. The average concentrations of Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn were 25.7, 30, 2.2, 7.5, 2.9, and 8.0 times, respectively, compared to the geochemical background (carbonate sedimentary rocks). et al.-Hanuvil Beach, relatively elevated contents of these metals were recorded. In addition, samples showed Zn levels higher than the corresponding probable effect concentration (PEC) and effect range medium (ERM) values, suggesting adverse impacts on biota. The principal component (PC) analysis revealed the anthropogenic origin of Cd, Co, and Pb in PC1, the mixed origin of Cr, Cu, Mn, and Zn in PC2, and the natural source of Fe in PC3. According to the applied single pollution indices, HM contamination grades were ranked in ascending order of Mn < Fe < Cr < Cd < Cu < Pb < Zn < Co. In conclusion, the HMs (Cu, Zn, Cd, Co, Pb, and Cr) in the study area are anthropogenic, attributed mainly to untreated discharge of municipal and industrial wastewater and solid wastes, atmospheric deposition of air pollutants, and tourism activities.

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评估城市化对埃及亚历山大市沿岸地区海滩沉积物重金属污染的影响

在密集的城市化、旅游业、商业港口和工业活动的推动下，埃及亚历山大市西部沿海地区因海滩沉积物中的重金属 (HM) 污染而面临严峻的环境挑战。因此，本研究重点从地球化学角度评估了 28 个地点的沉积物样本中的 HM 含量，并采用了各种描述性和多元统计方法、污染指数和沉积物质量指南 (SQG) 来确定污染热点、界定污染等级并评估海滩沉积物的质量。与地球化学背景（碳酸盐沉积岩）相比，Cd、Co、Cr、Cu、Pb 和 Zn 的平均浓度分别为 25.7、30、2.2、7.5、2.9 和 8.0 倍。此外，样本中的锌含量高于相应的可能影响浓度 (PEC) 和影响范围中值 (ERM)，表明对生物群有不利影响。主成分（PC）分析表明，PC1 中的镉、钴和铅为人为来源，PC2 中的铬、铜、锰和锌为混合来源，PC3 中的铁为自然来源。根据所应用的单一污染指数，HMs 污染等级由高到低依次为 Mn < Fe < Cr < Cd < Cu < Pb < Zn < Co。总之，研究区域的有害物质（铜、锌、镉、钴、铅和铬）是人为的，主要归因于未经处理的城市和工业废水及固体废物的排放、大气污染物的沉降以及旅游活动。

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来源期刊

Water, Air, & Soil Pollution 环境科学-环境科学

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

6.90%

发文量

448

审稿时长

2.6 months

期刊介绍： Water, Air, & Soil Pollution is an international, interdisciplinary journal on all aspects of pollution and solutions to pollution in the biosphere. This includes chemical, physical and biological processes affecting flora, fauna, water, air and soil in relation to environmental pollution. Because of its scope, the subject areas are diverse and include all aspects of pollution sources, transport, deposition, accumulation, acid precipitation, atmospheric pollution, metals, aquatic pollution including marine pollution and ground water, waste water, pesticides, soil pollution, sewage, sediment pollution, forestry pollution, effects of pollutants on humans, vegetation, fish, aquatic species, micro-organisms, and animals, environmental and molecular toxicology applied to pollution research, biosensors, global and climate change, ecological implications of pollution and pollution models. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution also publishes manuscripts on novel methods used in the study of environmental pollutants, environmental toxicology, environmental biology, novel environmental engineering related to pollution, biodiversity as influenced by pollution, novel environmental biotechnology as applied to pollution (e.g. bioremediation), environmental modelling and biorestoration of polluted environments. Articles should not be submitted that are of local interest only and do not advance international knowledge in environmental pollution and solutions to pollution. Articles that simply replicate known knowledge or techniques while researching a local pollution problem will normally be rejected without review. Submitted articles must have up-to-date references, employ the correct experimental replication and statistical analysis, where needed and contain a significant contribution to new knowledge. The publishing and editorial team sincerely appreciate your cooperation. Water, Air, & Soil Pollution publishes research papers; review articles; mini-reviews; and book reviews.