Sunday Nkopuyo Udoekpo
Assessment of heavy metals pollution in soft sediment of the Severn Estuary and inner Bristol Channel system
Udoekpo, Sunday Nkopuyo; Everard, Mark
Abstract
For several decades, the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel have been contaminated by heavy metals despite the many ecosystem services it provides. Therefore, this paper is devoted to the systematic assessment of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Ni, Zn and Pb) pollution in soft sediments of the Severn Estuary and Inner Bristol Channel. An unpublished 2016 monitoring survey data of the Severn Estuary and Bristol Channel was obtained from the UK Environment Agency to assess seasonal variations, spatial distribution, exceedances, ecological risk, and potential sources of heavy metals. Seasonal variations between the concentration of heavy metals during summer and winter revealed that irrespective of seasons the concentration of heavy metals had the trend Zn > Cr > Pb > Ni > Cd. Concentrations of metals were higher in summer than winter, and there was a significant difference between metals concentration in summer and winter (P < 0.05). Spatial distribution of metals using the Empirical Bayesian Kriging (EBK) model revealed that irrespective of the seasons, concentrations of Cd, Cr, Ni, Zn and Pb in the distinct reaches of the estuary followed the trend Severn middle > Severn lower > Inner Bristol Channel > Severn upper. One-way ANOVA, which was followed by the Tukey's HSD test, showed a significant difference between the mean concentration of heavy metals in the distinct reaches of the study area at p ≤ 0.05. Assessment of heavy metals using the USEPA Sediment Quality Guideline revealed that none of the reaches of the estuary was polluted with Cd. The Severn upper was not polluted with Pb. The Severn middle was moderately polluted by Ni but heavily polluted with Zn, Cr and Pb. Other reaches of the estuary were moderately polluted with Cr, Ni, Zn and Pb. Assessment of ecological risk of heavy metals using pollution indices such as geo-accumulation index (Igeo), contamination factor (CF), metal pollution index (MPI) and pollution load index (PLI) revealed that heavy metals such as Zn, Pb, Ni and Cr in the distinct reaches of the estuary and might pose an adverse effect on biota and ecosystem services of the Severn Estuary and Inner Bristol Channel. Identification of potential sources of metals using Pearson correlation, hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) suggested that heavy metals all originated from anthropogenic sources.
Citation
Udoekpo, S. N., & Everard, M. (2021). Assessment of heavy metals pollution in soft sediment of the Severn Estuary and inner Bristol Channel system. British Journal of Environmental Sciences, 9(2), 1-30
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Mar 8, 2021 |
Publication Date | 2021 |
Deposit Date | Jun 25, 2021 |
Publicly Available Date | Jul 1, 2021 |
Journal | British Journal of Environmental Science |
Print ISSN | 2055-0219 |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 9 |
Issue | 2 |
Pages | 1-30 |
Keywords | Heavy metal, Soft sediment, seasonal variations, spatial distribution, ecological risk, potential sources. |
Public URL | https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/7191381 |
Publisher URL | https://www.eajournals.org/journals/british-journal-of-environmental-sciences-bjes/vol-9-issue-2-2021/assessment-of-heavy-metals-pollution-in-soft-sediment-of-the-severn-estuary-and-inner-bristol-channel-system/ |
Files
Assessment of heavy metals pollution in soft sediment of the Severn Estuary and inner Bristol Channel system
(2.2 Mb)
PDF
Licence
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
Publisher Licence URL
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/
You might also like
Hydropower: The good, the bad and the ugly
(2023)
Journal Article
Book review: Addicted to growth
(2023)
Digital Artefact
The importance of habitats: How and policy developments shaping the world of habitats?
(2023)
Presentation / Conference
British Wildlife Freshwater fishes report 2022
(2023)
Journal Article
Downloadable Citations
About UWE Bristol Research Repository
Administrator e-mail: repository@uwe.ac.uk
This application uses the following open-source libraries:
SheetJS Community Edition
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
PDF.js
Apache License Version 2.0 (http://www.apache.org/licenses/)
Font Awesome
SIL OFL 1.1 (http://scripts.sil.org/OFL)
MIT License (http://opensource.org/licenses/mit-license.html)
CC BY 3.0 ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/)
Powered by Worktribe © 2024
Advanced Search