The 5th International Conference on Advances in Civil and Ecological Engineering Research (ACEER 2023)

Abstract: This presentation analyzed heavy metals: iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), zinc (Zn), and lead (Pb) on surface sediments and evaluated the role of sediment grain size and organic carbon (OC) in the distribution of metals. Sixteen numbers of surface sediment samples were collected during summer period of 2019 from Sebou estuary (Morocco). The dominance of fine-grained sediments (clay and silt) was noted in the study region. The organic carbon distribution indicates that they are brought in the surroundings of coastal areas. Correlation analysis clearly indicates that fine particles and organic carbon control the distribution of metals. The correlation coefficient for relationships between the metals shows a strong degree of association between the fine fractions. The significant correlations were evident for Zn and Mn (r=0.66), Mn and Fe (r=0.70). The correlations between OC versus Mn (r=0.80), OC and sand (r=-0.70), OC versus silt (r=0.96), OC and clay (r=0.87) were significant. The degree of correlation between metals and other major constituents is often used to indicate the origin of the metals. On the other hand, contamination levels of metals were examined by using geo-accumulation index (I geo ), and contamination factor (CF) which indicated the fact that the heavy metals were unpolluted to moderately polluted in the estuarine sediments.