Speciation of Some Heavy Metals in Sediments of the Pennington River, Bayelsa State, Nigeria | Chapter 8 | Theory and Applications of Chemistry Vol. 2
Speciation
helps in the identifications and quantification of the defined geochemical
fractions, forms or phases in which
an element exists
in the environment.
Speciation in sediment
compartment is a significant step to understand the potential
environmental risk, distribution, mobility and bioavailability of pollutants.
The total heavy metal concentrations of some environmentally toxic metals in
sediments of the Pennington River System, Bayelsa state, Nigeria was examined.
The concentrations of heavy metals
in each fraction
were determined using
a ANALYST 400
Perkin-Elmer AAS. The
mean concentrations (mg/kg) for
the six metals
in dry season
sediment samples were:
0.14±0.17(As), 0.39±0.55(Co), 2.43±5.06(Cu), 26.82±22.19(Fe),
0.69±1.10(Pb), and 1.22±1.19(Zn), while the mean metal concentrations (mg/kg)
in wet season
samples
were:0.11±0.18(As),0.37±0.6(Co), 2.07±4.35(Cu), 26.65±24.79(Fe), 0.61±1.08(Pb), and
1.11±1.00(Zn) respectively. Speciation
study applying the five-stage
sequential extraction scheme
revealed that As,
Co, and Pb
in sediment prevails mostly in
exchangeable fraction. Cu and Zn were more prevalent in residual fraction,
while Fe was found more in residual and Fe/Mn-Oxide fractions. In an attempt to
infer anthropogenic input from natural input, comparison with sediment quality
guideline (SQGs) and ecotoxicological sense of heavy metal contamination
was employed. The
concentration of the
studied heavy metals
in Pennington River System
does not pose a
threat to the
sediment dwelling fauna
and anyone who
consumes aquatic animals, particularly fish, from the Pennington River.
According to SQGs, the studied heavy metals of the Pennington River sediments
were under the category of non-polluted. Speciation is a powerful and versatile
technique for predicting the degree of contamination risk of a river system. In
this present study,
all heavy metals
investigated are relatively
stable under normal
conditions of Pennington River
system. This means that there is a low source of pollution arriving to the
Pennington River system. Iron
was found to
be the highest
occurring heavy metal
and arsenic was
the least occurring heavy
metal in this study.
Furthermore, there is no
heavy metal pollution threat pose to sediments
dwelling fauna and
anyone who consume
aquatic animals, particularly
fish from the Pennington River system. To preserve the unpolluted state of the
Pennington River system it remains important that allochthonous inputs are
devoid of heavy metals.
Author(s) Details
Kaywood E. Leizou,
Ph. D
Department of Chemical Sciences, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Nigeria.
Department of Chemical Sciences, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Nigeria.
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