《Assessment of the sources of chemical elements in sediment from Arak Mighan Lake》.pdfVIP

International Journal of Sediment Research 29 (2014) 159-170 Assessment of the sources of chemical elements in sediment from Arak Mighan Lake Feridon GHADIMI1 Abstract Five sediment zones (20 samples) were collected in Mighan Lake, near Arak city in Markazi province, and were analyzed to reveal element sources and assess the quality of metal contamination. Both anthropogenic and natural origins were identified by correlation, factor, and cluster analyse. According to the enrichment factors (EF) of trace metals (Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Rb, Sr, Zr, and Zn), three groups were identified. Enriched trace elements included: Ni, Zn, and Sr. Comparisons with contamination degree and benchmark sediment quality criteria and guidelines showed that Mighan Lake has potential for adverse effects on aquatic biota because of Ni, Zn, and Cr. Key Words: Enrichment factor, Elements, Multivariate analysis, Mighan Lake, Sediment 1 Introduction The geochemical behavior of most anthropogenic chemicals in the lake environment is determined to a large extent by their interactions with sediments. Sediments act as integrators and amplifiers of the concentrations of these elements in the waters which pass over and transport them and play an important role in the shallow water lake areas. For this reason, sediments have been widely used to identify sources of contamination, to measure their relative importance, and assess the quality of aquatic systems (Feng et al., 2011; Wang et al., 2013). One of the problems relating to contamination of the continental margin and lake environment is the id