Potential ecological risk of heavy metals in sediments from the Mediterranean coast, Egypt

Background and aim: mediterranean sea, egypt is an economically important marine environment. during the lastdecades there has been extensive increase in the levels of urbanization and industrialization along its coastal area.therefore, the present work attempts to determine the status of heavy metals distribution in sediment samples, andtheir ecological risk assessment in the studied area.materials and methods: twenty surfacial sediment samples were collected from different selected stations alongthe egyptian mediterranean sea. the samples were homogenized and placed into sealed polyethylene bags, carriedto the laboratory in an ice box and stored at ?20 °c in the dark until analysis.results: the results revealed that fe had the highest mean value (243–38045 ?gg?1) followed bymn (17–1086 ?gg?1),and a lower concentrations were found for co (0.43–26.39 ?gg?1) and cd (0.04–0.47 ?gg?1). risk assessment showedthat cd had the highest ecological risk (er = 21.52), followed by pb (er = 3.01), while zn had the lowest risk (er = 0.23).both the ecotoxicological index method and the potential ecological risk index (ri) suggested that the combinedecological risk of the studied metals may be low. multivariate statistical analysis (cluster and factor analysis) suggestedthat the lithogenic factor dominants the distribution of most part of the considered metals in the study area.conclusion: multivariate analysis has been proved to be an effective tool for providing suggestive information regardingheavy metal sources and pathways. the results of this study provide valuable information about metal contamination insediments along the mediterranean sea for over than 1200 km.