Assessment of Some Heavy Metals and Ecological Risk in Surface Sediments and Water along the El Tur Coast of Suez Gulf, Red Sea, Egypt

The monitoring of chemical pollutants of the Red Sea is the initial step to ensure that a healthy marine environment can coexist with necessary human activities. Surface sediments and water samples were collected from El Tur City coast, Gulf of Suez, the Red Sea, Egypt, to determine the extent of heavy metal concentrations, their patterns of distribution, and the ecological concerns connected with the concentrations of heavy metals. Various analysis methodologies assessed the ecological hazards associated with Fe, Zn, Mn, Cu, Cd, Co, Pb, and Ni. For the result of the sediments of El Tur city coast, in the Gulf of Suez, the hydrosoil heavy metal indices were as follows: The order of enrichment factors is: Cd > Co > Pb > Ni > Zn > Mn > Cu. The levels of contamination factors for zinc and copper were low. Furthermore, an average contamination security index of 0.719 was found for all sites, indicating that the majority of the areas under examination were either very clean or very little contaminated. The ecological risk index (ERI) for a single heavy metal pollutant and the potential toxicity response index (RI) for multiple heavy metals in sediments indicate that the Zn, Pb, Cu, Ni, and Cd metals all pose a moderate ecological risk in the El Tur beaches area. At the same time, measurements of water properties revealed depths ranging from 0.9– 10m and temperatures between 18.7– 20.7°C. In contrast, the heavy metals were observed for Fe (4.9- 35.1), Mn (0.133– 0.55), Ni (0.37– 1.20), Zn (2.8– 19.55), Cu (0.37– 2.09), Co (0.509– 0.64), Pb (0.43– 2.55), and Cd (0.09– 0.3) µg/ l, respectively.