Environmental assessment of metallic trace element (Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu) contamination in surficial sediment at coastal waters of Setiu, Terengganu

Abstract

The distributions of selected metallic trace elements (Cd, Pb, Zn and Cu), total organic carbon and particle mean size were determined in 27 surficial sediment at coastal waters of Setiu, Terengganu. Closed acid digestion method were used for the heavy metal analysis. Dry sieving method and dry combustion method were used for the particle mean size- and total organic carbon analysis in this study. From this study, higher metals concentration in surficial sediment were dominated with Zn with the average concentration of 13.40 ± 5.25 �Lglg dw, followed by Pb, Cu and Cd with average concentration 7.32± 3.02 µgig dw, 4.38 ± 1.57 µgig dw and 0.03 ± 0.02 µgig dw respectively. The distribution of total organic carbon ranged between 0.02% to 1.89%, while particle mean size ranged between 0.500 and 3.520 respectively. The average of each heavy metal was found to be lower compared to the Upper Continental Crust (UCC). Correlation analysis showed that all metals have a weak correlation with the both distribution of particle mean size and total organic carbon. Other than that, co-association with selected metal also showed that those metal does not comes from the same sources except for Zn and Pb.