Assessment of heavy metal pollution and ecological risk in marine sediments (A case study: Persian Gulf)

This study was made to determine the pollution status and potential ecological risk of heavy metals in sediment of Persian Gulf. Surface sediments were collected seasonally by Peterson grab, and the concentrations of heavy metals were measured by using inductively coupled plasma–optical emission spectrometry (ICP–OES). The range concentrations obtained in mg/kg were 10,800–22,400 for Fe, 5.32–10.12 for Pb, 24.63–42.38 for Ni, 22.52–39.46 for Cu, and 31.64–47.20 for Cr. The concentrations of Pb, Ni, Cu, and Cr have been found lower than the Interim Sediment Quality Guidelines and probable effect level values suggesting that heavy metal contents in sediments from area of study would not be expected to cause adverse biological effects on the biota. The obtained enrichment factor values for various metals were between minimal enrichment (Pb = 0.5) and extremely enrichment (Cu = 3.11). The values of I_geo for Pb, Ni, Cu, and Cr were characterized under no pollution (0). The highest value of potential ecological risk index (RI) (8.36) was observed at St. 4 while the lowest value (5.25) was detected at station 6. Based on potential ecological RI, the Persian Gulf had low ecological risk.