Ability of corals to accumulate heavy metals,Northern Red Sea,Egypt |
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Authors: | Tarek Abdel-Aziz Ahmed Mohammed Mahmoud A Dar |
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Institution: | 1.National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Marine Biological Station,Hurghada,Egypt |
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Abstract: | The concentrations of six heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Pb and Zn) were studied in 11 hard and 4 soft common coral species
collected from Hurghada, Wadi Al-Gemal and Gola’an along the Red Sea coast to assess the differential abilities of corals
to concentrate and assimilate the heavy metals inside soft coral tissues and hard coral skeletons. These results reveal the
order of Fe > Zn > Ni > Pb ≥ Mn > Cu. Fe recorded significant high concentrations in mushroom (funnel) forms of the soft corals
at the different sites; 125.19, 101.71 and 90.44 ppm at Gola’an, Hurghada and Wadi Al-Gemal, respectively. The soft coral
species recorded the highest average concentration of Mn, Ni, Cu and Zn than the hard corals, which were 13.22, 16.05, 13.08
and 148.17 ppm, respectively. Generally, soft corals show higher metal concentrations than the hard ones; moreover, Hurghada
recorded a higher trend of metal concentrations in soft and hard corals than the other sites. The study concluded that many
biological and local environmental factors influenced the metal occurrences and uptakes in both coral forms such as, the exposed
surface area for metal uptake, turbidity, overlying mucus thickness and the ability of metals to substitute inside the crystal
lattice of the hard corals. |
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