Selected Physicochemical Evaluation of Sediments from a Mangrove Swamp in Warri, Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Sediments were sourced once monthly within the months, February 2013
to July 2014, from several points on the Falcorp mangrove swamp, Ijala,
Warri. The sediments were subjected to selected physicochemical
analysis such as; total organic carbon, were conducted in accordance
with standard procedures. Several indices which included; pollution load
index (PLI) and potential ecological risk index (PERI) were utilized in the
ecological risk assessment of the sediment associated heavy metals.
Several statistical and multivariate analysis such as; Microsoft excel,
SPSS version 16.0 and PAST were utilized in evaluation of the results.
There was no significant difference (P>0.05) for TOC, Fe, Cr and Total
nitrogen across the study stations. The observed differences between the
total phosphorus, Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd across the smapled stations was
significantly different (P<0.05). A positive correlation existed between
TOC, Fe, Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb and Cr, whilst between total nitrogen and total
phosphorus, a negative relationship was observed. The CF values for Zn,
Cu, Cd, Pb and Cr fluctuated across the stations and were far lesser than
1. The potential ecological risk arising from the heavy metal profiles of
the sediments was very minimal or non-existent.