Heavy metal content and potential ecological risk assessment of sediments from Khnifiss Lagoon National Park (Morocco).

Coastal lagoons are important but sensitive environments, being transitional zones between land and sea. The Khnifiss lagoon is the most important desert wetland in Morocco, but little data have been produced concerning heavy metal geochemistry and enrichments in the sediments. Therefore, 26 surface sediments (15 intertidal and 11 subtidal) and 2 sediment cores were collected in 2016 and analyzed for a selection of heavy metals.

Environmental and ecological risk of heavy metals in the marine sediment from Dakhla Bay, Morocco.

Heavy metal assessment in Dakhla Bay (Atlantic coast) was carried out using different environmental and ecological indices. Heavy metal concentrations were measured using ICP-AES and were compared with consensus-based sediment quality guidelines. The distribution of heavy metal concentrations varies for the three groups: (i) lead distribution is dominated by its associations with copper and chromium.

Environmental risk assessment of the Moroccan Atlantic continental shelf: the role of the industrial and urban area.

The present research presents the first large-scale analysis of heavy metal assessment in the Moroccan Atlantic shelf. This work provides scientific basis for future studies on environmental research and fills the gap in knowledge on the worldwide continental platforms. Metal distributions identified three different zones, mainly influenced by industrial and urban sewer (northern areas), agriculture runoffs (central zone), and estuarine discharges (southern areas), respectively.

Evaluation of the anthropogenic influx of metal and metalloid contaminants into the Moulay Bousselham lagoon, Morocco, using chemometric methods coupled to geographical information systems.

Superficial and cored sediment samples from the Moulay Bousselham lagoon and sub-watershed were analyzed for Al, Fe, Cu, Zn, Pb, Mn, Ni, Cr, As, Hg, and Cd. The temporal and spatial distributions of the main contamination sources of heavy metals were identified and described using chemometric and geographic information system (GIS) methods. Sediments from coastal lagoons near urban and agricultural areas are commonly contaminated with heavy metals, and the concentrations found in surface sediments are significantly higher than those from 50-100 years ago.