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vol-33DISTRIBUTION OF PHOSPHORUS FRACTIONS AND SOME OF
HEAVY METALS IN SURFACE SEDIMENTS OF BURULLUS
LAGOON AND ADJACENT MEDITERRANEAN SEA
KHALIL, M. KH.; RADWAN, A. M. AND EL-MOSELHY, KH. M.*
National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Alexandria, Egypt.
[email protected]
Keywords: Burullus Lagoon, Mediterranean Sea, sediments, phosphorus forms, heavy metals.
ABSTRACT
Twelve samples were collected from the surface sediments of lagoon and adjacent
Mediterranean Sea. Samples were analyzed for grain size, total organic carbon (TOC), total
carbonate (CaCO3), various forms of phosphorus and heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Zn, Cu, Ni,
Co, Cd and Pb). The results indicated that the sediments were composed of sand, silt and
clay enriched with carbonate (1.95 – 34.1%) and total organic carbon (0.06 and 3.62%).
The total-P content ranged between 58 and 1186 µg/g, and the fraction associated with
apatite minerals (PHCl) was the dominant (it constitutes about 50 – 73% of TP) implying
that it was the main storage of phosphate. The various P phases demonstrated significant
positive correlation with mean size, silt, clay, TOC, CaCO3 and TP, while only Pex was
correlated with the metals. As well as, the obtained data indicated that the variations of the
measured metals in sediments are varied depending on the locations, whereas the high
levels were observed in the western area of the lagoon. The studied gave positively
correlated with each other and organic carbon suggested that the distributions of these
metals are associated with the organic matter accumulation.
