Estimation of Heavy Metal Concentration for Sediments of Shatt Al-Basrah Canal by using Ecological Indices Zahraw Zahraa1, Maktoof Afrah Abd2, Al-Obaidy Abdul Hameed M.J.1, Kareem Luay M. Abdul3, Shakir Eman1, Hassan Sarah Mustafa1 1Environmental Research Center, University of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq 2Biology Department, Science Collage, University of Thi-Qar, Iraq 3Technical Institute of Basrah, Southern Technical University, Basrah, Iraq *Corresponding author: Zahraa Zahraw, Environmental Research Center, University Of Technology, Baghdad, Iraq; E-mail: zahraa.zahraw@gmail.com
Online published on 21 February, 2019. Abstract This study was conducted to describe the distribution of metals in sediment of Shutt Al-Basra canal south of Iraq, where involved the measuring of four substantial metals Cd, Cr, Fe and Mn in residue for five locations. For the estimation of heavy metals effect a three indices was utilize; Contamination Load Index (PLI) and Sediment Quality Criteria (QSm) and Metal Index (MI). The concentration of metal appear to be uniform distribution and have an identical pattern and it didn't exceed the acceptable level over the research time (2014–2015) except Iron were its concentration exceed the limit all the time in all stations. The result of the indices for the 5 stations was as following: PLI (1.3411, 1.24340, 1.1658, 1.1665, 1.4392), QSm (0.86355, 0.95191, 0.72032, 0.67163, 0.87784) and MI (2.45, 2.8, 1.88, 1.68, 2.51) respectively. Top Keywords Heavy Metal, Sediments, Shatt Al-Basrah, Canal. Top |