ORIGINAL RESEARCH
Trace and Toxic Element Levels
in River Sediments
Cem Tokatli1, Yasin Baştatli2
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1Trakya University, İpsala Vocational School, Department of Laboratory Technology, İpsala/Edirne, Turkey
2Dumlupınar University, Faculty of Science, Department of Biology, Kütahya, Turkey
Submission date: 2016-02-24
Final revision date: 2016-04-14
Acceptance date: 2016-04-14
Publication date: 2016-07-22
Pol. J. Environ. Stud. 2016;25(4):1715-1720
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ABSTRACT
The Meriç River is the longest river of the Balkans and it can be declared as most important aquatic
ecosystem in the Thrace Region of Turkey. The Tunca and Ergene rivers are the most important branches
of the Meriç and they are known to be exposed to important organic and inorganic pollution from agriculture
and industry in their basins. We evaluated the sediment quality of the three rivers by determining a total
of 25 trace and toxic element accumulations, including lithium (Li), boron (B), sodium (Na), magnesium
(Mg), aluminum (Al), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), iron
(Fe), cobalt (Co), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), zinc (Zn), gallium (Ga), arsenic (As), selenium (Se), strontium
(Sr), silver (Ag), cadmium (Cd), antimony (Sb), barium (Ba), titanium (Ti), and lead (Pb). Also, oneway
ANOVA testing was used to determine the statistical differences of element accumulations among
the stations, and cluster analysis (CA) was used to classify the rivers according to sediment qualities and
to classify the elements according to accumulation levels. As a result of the study, statistically significant
differences were identified among the investigated rivers in terms of almost all the trace and toxic elements
and the contamination levels of investigated aquatic ecosystems as follows: Ergene River > Meriç River
> Tunca River in general. According to the results of elemental CA, five statistically significant clusters
were formed: “most intense elements,” “second most intense elements,” “moderately intense elements,”
“second rarest elements,” and “rarest elements.” According to the results of locational CA, two statistically
significant clusters were formed: “highly contaminated locations” and “moderately contaminated locations.”