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The Contributions of Flashfloods on the Heavy Metals Incorporations Within the Coral Skeletons at Gulfs of Suez and Aqaba, Egypt

2018; Science Publishing Group; Volume: 3; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.11648/j.ijee.20180301.13

2575-1735

Mahmoud Abdel Radi Dar, Farouk Soliman, Ibrahem Mohamed Abd Allah,

Coral and Marine Ecosystems Studies

Heavy metals incorporation within the hard skeletons of 16 hard coral species collected from the tidal flats off five wadis along the eastern side the of Gulf of Suez and western side of Aqaba Gulf were measured using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). The selected wadis were intensively affected by the temporary intensive flashfloods. The highest averages of Fe, Mn, Cu, Ni, Co and Cd were recorded in the skeleton of Acropora forskali (2211.93; 57.85, 35.32 and 55.15, 4.70 and 1.72 μg/g respectively) at W. Isla in the eastern bank of Suez Gulf meanwhile the lowest averages of Fe, Mn, Cu were observed in Acropora yongei (142.59; 2.70 and 0.02μg/g) at W. Muqebla and the lowest Ni (2.85μg/g) was recorded at W. Watir in the western side of Aqaba Gulf. Stylophora pistillata showed the highest average of Zn (108.63μg/g) at W. Gharandel in the eastern side of Suez Gulf and the lowest value was recorded in Acropora pharaonis (2.17μg/g) at W. Muqebla. Pb showed the highest average in Acropora variables (32.88μg/g) at W. Kid at the western part of Aqaba Gulf and it was not detected in Montipora sp. at W. Isla and Porites sp. at W. Kid. The hard coral skeletons showed significantly high concentrations of (Fe, Mn, Cu, Pb, Ni, Co and Cd) at W. Isla and W. Gharandel along the eastern side of Suez Gulf. It is obvious that the studied coral species have variable tendencies to accumulate the heavy metals within their skeletons. In general, the coral species collected from Gulf of Suez wadis recorded high to significantly high bio-accumulation tendencies indicating to remarkable contributions of the land based activities (mining and oil exploration activities). The recorded heavy metals along Aqaba Gulf were significantly attributed to the flashfloods. The differential abilities of coral species showed that; S. pistillata at W. Gharandel along the eastern side of Suez Gulf has the highest bioaccumulation tendencies toward Zn (2.12), Pb (3.94), Ni (35), Co (1.60) and Cd (5.47) but Platygyra sp. has the highest bio-accumulation tendency towards Ni (3.53). The Gulf of Aqaba wadis showed the minimized bioaccumulation tendencies for the different coral species relative to the investigated coral species at Suez Gulf wadis except Acropora variables at W. Kid (1.22) for Pb and Acropora digitifera at W. Watir (1.25) for Ni.