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Ability of corals to accumulate heavy metals, Northern Red Sea, Egypt

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Abstract

The concentrations of six heavy metals (Fe, Mn, Ni, Cu, Pb and Zn) were studied in 11 hard and 4 soft common coral species collected from Hurghada, Wadi Al-Gemal and Gola’an along the Red Sea coast to assess the differential abilities of corals to concentrate and assimilate the heavy metals inside soft coral tissues and hard coral skeletons. These results reveal the order of Fe > Zn > Ni > Pb ≥ Mn > Cu. Fe recorded significant high concentrations in mushroom (funnel) forms of the soft corals at the different sites; 125.19, 101.71 and 90.44 ppm at Gola’an, Hurghada and Wadi Al-Gemal, respectively. The soft coral species recorded the highest average concentration of Mn, Ni, Cu and Zn than the hard corals, which were 13.22, 16.05, 13.08 and 148.17 ppm, respectively. Generally, soft corals show higher metal concentrations than the hard ones; moreover, Hurghada recorded a higher trend of metal concentrations in soft and hard corals than the other sites. The study concluded that many biological and local environmental factors influenced the metal occurrences and uptakes in both coral forms such as, the exposed surface area for metal uptake, turbidity, overlying mucus thickness and the ability of metals to substitute inside the crystal lattice of the hard corals.

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Acknowledgments

I would like to express my appreciation to all members of my team who worked in the laboratory and helped in the measurement process including Madkour H.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Institute of Oceanography and Fisheries, Marine Biological Station, Hurghada, Red Sea, Egypt

    Tarek Abdel-Aziz Ahmed Mohammed & Mahmoud A. Dar

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  1. Tarek Abdel-Aziz Ahmed Mohammed
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  2. Mahmoud A. Dar
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Correspondence to Tarek Abdel-Aziz Ahmed Mohammed.

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Abdel-Aziz Ahmed Mohammed, T., Dar, M.A. Ability of corals to accumulate heavy metals, Northern Red Sea, Egypt. Environ Earth Sci 59, 1525–1534 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-009-0138-x

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