Alharbi, T.; El-Sorogy, A.S.; Al-Kahtany, K. Distribution and Comprehensive Risk Evaluation of Cr, Cd, Fe, Zn, and Pb from Al Lith Coastal Seawater, Saudi Arabia. Water2024, 16, 1923.
Alharbi, T.; El-Sorogy, A.S.; Al-Kahtany, K. Distribution and Comprehensive Risk Evaluation of Cr, Cd, Fe, Zn, and Pb from Al Lith Coastal Seawater, Saudi Arabia. Water 2024, 16, 1923.
Alharbi, T.; El-Sorogy, A.S.; Al-Kahtany, K. Distribution and Comprehensive Risk Evaluation of Cr, Cd, Fe, Zn, and Pb from Al Lith Coastal Seawater, Saudi Arabia. Water2024, 16, 1923.
Alharbi, T.; El-Sorogy, A.S.; Al-Kahtany, K. Distribution and Comprehensive Risk Evaluation of Cr, Cd, Fe, Zn, and Pb from Al Lith Coastal Seawater, Saudi Arabia. Water 2024, 16, 1923.
Abstract
Seawater contamination is a global challenge due to its hazardous effects on marine organisms and human health. Twenty-three surface seawater samples were collected from Al Lith intertidal area along the Saudi Red Sea coast to evaluate the ecological risks and document the potential sources of Cr, Cd, Fe, Zn, and Pb. Contamination factor (CF), contamination degree (Cd), water quality index (WQI), and heavy metal pollution index (HPI), as well as multivariate tools were applied. The averages of HMs (μg/L) had the following order: Zn (6.616) > Pb (0.284) > Cd and Cr (0.268) > Fe (0.197). Results of CF showed moderate contamination of seawater with Cd and low contamination for Cr, Fe, Zn, and Pb. However, 26.09% of the samples showed considerable contamination for Cd. Average Cd values revealed low contamination for HMs, while 17.39% of the samples showed moderate contamination. HPI average values indicated medium pollution for Al Lith seawater, meanwhile 13 samples reported high pollution. The higher HPI values were reported in samples characterized by higher concentration of HMs, particularly Cd and Zn. Correlation matrix and principal component analysis suggested anthropogenic sources for Pb and Zn, mostly from industrial and agricultural effluents, landfilling and domestic wastewaters, apart from their natural sources.
Keywords
Risk assessment; Zinc; Lead; Cadmium; Seawater; Red Sea
Subject
Environmental and Earth Sciences, Pollution
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
