Metal fluxes across sediment-water interface in lake Qarun, Egypt

Abstract EN

Lake Qarun is a unique water body that is characterized by high water salinity and no major natural freshwater source.

High evaporation rate from such closed ecosystem increases concentration of salts, heavy metals, pesticides and other pollutants in water.

The purpose of this paper is to study the flux rates of cadmium, copper, zinc and lead across the sediment water interface and to find out fate of those metals.

The data on the speciation of the four metals in the surficial sediment and their concentrations in the water layer just above the sediment layer were used to calculate the flux rates and to establish the geochemical models.

The calculated geochemical models show that, at present, the flux of cadmium, copper, zinc and lead is from water to sediments and that the major part of those metals is retained in the sedimentary compartment.