Potentially Toxic Elements Contamination in Sediment, Surface and Pore water of Maharlu Saline Lake, South - West Iran

Moore, Farid; Amini Birami, Farideh; Keshavarzi, Behnam; Kamali, Maryam

doi:10.22059/geope.2018.260423.648396

Potentially Toxic Elements Contamination in Sediment, Surface and Pore water of Maharlu Saline Lake, South - West Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Farid Moore

Farideh Amini Birami

Behnam Keshavarzi

Maryam Kamali

Department of Earth Sciences, College of Science, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

10.22059/geope.2018.260423.648396

Abstract

Maharlu Lake, located in the SW of Iran, has acted as a sink for various wastewater discharges in the last few decades. This study aimed at assessing potentially toxic elements (PTEs) distribution in sediment, surface and pore water samples of Maharlu Lake. To achieve that, the samples were collected from each compartment and the total concentration of PTEs (Al, Fe, Sc, Cr, Co, Ni, Zn, As, Sb, Cu, Pb, Mn, V, Cd, and Mo) analyzed by inductively coupled plasma - optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). Based on enrichment factor (EF) analysis the lake sediments were categorized as: minimally enriched with Sb, Co, Zn, V, Cu, Pb, As, Mn, Fe, Al and moderately enriched with Mo, Ni, Cr, and Cd. Analysis of contamination factor (Cf) and potential ecological risk factor (Er) of PTEs in sediment samples showed that there was low to moderate level of contamination. The sediment-water partition coefficients (Kd for PTEs in both water groups decreased in the order of Fe> Al>Mn>Zn>Pb>Mo>Sb>Cd. The low value of Kd (log Kd

Keywords

pore water

potentially toxic elements

Maharlu Lake

sediment contamination

partition coefficient