Date of Award

2007

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Environmental Science

First Advisor

Dr. Esam Abd EI Gawad

Second Advisor

Dr. Muthanna AI-Omar

Third Advisor

Dr. Ahmed Murad

Abstract

The present study aims to quantifying and assessing the orgasmic and

Inorganic pollutants extents along eastern side of the United Arab

Emirates UAE offshore on the Gulf of Oman, which consist of Fujairah,

Khor Fakkan and Kalba. Rapid development and the highly usage of the

coastal region for industrial activities, sewage disposal and marine

transportation has led to obvious changes in sediments quality of the

marine environment. Twelve coastal sampling stations were selected to

cover the maximum area of the eastern side, three sampling stations were

selected from marine sediments and six sampling collected from spilled

oil near investigated area.

Sediments samples were subjected to a variety of analyses including

mechanical, total organic carbon (TOC), total petroleum hydrocarbon

(TPH), total kjeldahl nitrogen (TKN), twenty congeners of

polychlorinated biphenyl's (PCBs ), sixteen different polycyclic aromatic

hydrocarbons (P AHs) and heavy metals analyses

The grain size analysis showed that about 42 % of the studied stations are

covered by medium sand and 33% covered by fine sand, which reflected

trend of increasing the organic and inorganic pollutants by decreasing

grain size. The average TOC % analyzed in the study area is 0.6 % which

higher value than other regional studies. The average TPH in study area is

around 156 mg/kg. The total concentration of TKN in ranged between

83.8 mg/kg to 1443 mg/kg. This study indicates positive correlation

between TKN and TOC, which may be related to land pollution such as

industrial areas and agricultural pollution. The distribution maps of TOC

and TPH shows trend of an increasing toward the northern part of study

area whereas, TKN showed a trend of increasing toward the southern part

of study area.

The total concentration of PCBs in the study area was found to range

between 0.06 mg/kg to 0.145 mg/kg. The distribution maps of TPCBs

show increasing toward the northern part of study area KhorFakkan.

The total PAHs concentration in sediment samples ranges between 0.07

mg/kg to 0.28 mg/kg, in contrast the total concentration of PAHs from oil

sample was between 44.28 mg/kg to 299.3 mg/kg. The distribution maps

for each of compounds show two trend of increasing, in which one

toward the southern and another toward northeast of study area.

Nine heavy metals elements have been analyzed in this study i.e. Cd, Cr,

Cu, Co, Mn, Ni, Ph, V, and Zn. The highest detected concentrations are

Ni and Mn with average of 398.4 mg/kg and 191.4 mg/kg respectively.

The lowest determined concentration is Cd with average of 0.24 mg/kg.

In general, the heavy metals concentrations in the study area are low

compared to previous studies in the region.

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