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The significance of applying different factors for the evaluation of sediment contamination by toxic elements and estimation of the ecological risk

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Abstract

The optimized three-step sequential extraction procedure for the fractionation of micro- and macroelements, was conducted to determine fractional characteristics of PTEs (potentially toxic elements) in surface sediments of rivers in the Vlasina watershed. The sequential extraction results, which enable the evaluation of mobility of the studied elements, have indicated that Zn, Ni, Cu, Cr, and As can be considered slightly mobile, whereas Pb, Mn, Cd, and Co were regarded as possibly mobile elements. Lead was dominantly bounded (specifically adsorbed or co-precipitated) to iron and manganese oxides (up to 80%) and may be released by reduction. Since the content of the exchangeable fraction (F1) is an indicator for anthropogenic impact on the aquatic environment, a low percentage (0–8%) of studied toxic elements in this fraction indicated that these elements have lithogenic origin in most sampling locations in the area of study. Except for Pb, the substantial positive correlations between Al and other elements showed that studied elements came primarily from terrigenous sources. Although the values obtained for the risk assessment code (RAC) indicated a slightly increased mobility of some elements (up to 22.44%), the values of the modified risk assessment code (mRAC), which include toxic effects on the environment, showed there is no danger of pollution by studied elements (all values were < 1%). Our recommendation is to use mRAC instead of RAC in ecochemical studies and assessment of the degree of sediment and soil pollution, because mRAC includes toxic effects of elements. Based on ATI values, river sediments show no toxic to a low toxic degree. Even though obtained results indicate that there was no considerable risk for river water contamination, the ecological risk for Fe and Pb should be monitored in the future.

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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are very grateful to Sandra Škrivanj for analytical results.

Funding

The Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of Republic of Serbia supported this work (Grant No: 451–03-68/2022–14/200026).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre of Excellence in Environmental Chemistry and Engineering – Institute of Chemistry, Technology and Metallurgy, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Njegoševa 12, 11158, Belgrade, Serbia

    Sanja Sakan, Aleksandra Mihajlidi-Zelić & Dragana Đorđević

  2. Faculty of Chemistry, University of Belgrade, Studentski Trg 12-16, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Ksenija Ašković & Snežana Trifunović

  3. Institute of Physics, National Institute of the Republic of Serbia, University of Belgrade, Pregrevica 118, 11000, Belgrade, Serbia

    Nenad Sakan

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Contributions

S.S: formal analysis, writing original draft, conceptualization, methodology, investigation. A.M.Z: writing — review and editing, English corrections. K.A: writing — review and editing, English corrections. S.T: formal analysis. N.S: software, writing — review and editing; D.Đ: investigation, review and editing, supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Sakan, S., Mihajlidi-Zelić, A., Ašković, K. et al. The significance of applying different factors for the evaluation of sediment contamination by toxic elements and estimation of the ecological risk. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 53461–53477 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-26111-4

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