Authors: Dorra Gargouri Chafai Azri Mohamed Moncef Serbaji Younes Jedoui Mabrouk Montacer
Publish Date: 2010/06/10
Volume: 175, Issue: 1-4, Pages: 519-530
Abstract
Sixtyseven surface marine sediment samples in the 63 μ m fraction collected from the coast of Sfax Tunisia were analyzed by inductively coupled plasmaatomic emission spectrometry for seven heavy metals Pb Ni Cu Cr Zn Cd and Fe Metal concentrations were compared with natural values marine sediment quality standards and also with other results concerning sediments from several Mediterranean coasts The study of their spatial distributions refined by complementary approaches including principal component analysis enrichment factors and geoaccumulation index showed a significant impact of multiple anthropogenic sources These included industrial sources and municipal discharges of the urban Sfax and also noncontrolled discharges in rural zones close to the coastline Moderate pollution of sediments especially by Pb Zn and Ni was shown to exist in localized sites Besides it was shown that other sites slightly to highly enriched in terms of Cu Cr and Cd are characterized by a quality of sediments varying from unpolluted to moderately polluted
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