Seasonal and Spatial Distribution of Soil Trace Elements around Kitchener Drain in the Northern Nile Delta, Egypt

Abeer Aitta, Hassan El-Ramady, Tarek Alshaal, Ahmed El-Henawy, Mohamed Shams, Nasser Talha, Fathy Elbehiry and Eric C. Brevik
Additional contact information
Abeer Aitta: Faculty of Agriculture, Soil and Water Department, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Hassan El-Ramady: Faculty of Agriculture, Soil and Water Department, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Tarek Alshaal: Faculty of Agriculture, Soil and Water Department, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Ahmed El-Henawy: Faculty of Agriculture, Soil and Water Department, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Mohamed Shams: Faculty of Agriculture, Soil and Water Department, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Nasser Talha: Soils, Water and Environment Research Institute (SWERI), ARC, Sakha, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Fathy Elbehiry: Central Laboratory of Environmental Studies, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El-Sheikh 33516, Egypt
Eric C. Brevik: Department of Natural Sciences, Dickinson State University, Dickinson, ND 58601, USA

Agriculture, 2019, vol. 9, issue 7, 1-25

Abstract: The pollution of agricultural soils, water and plants by trace elements (TEs) in the Nile Delta Region, Egypt, is of great importance. This study aimed to investigate the spatial and seasonal variation of some TEs in the agricultural area adjacent to Kitchener Drain and to evaluate the ecological risk posed by these elements using six indices. Soil and plant samples were collected from seven sites close to the drain, while water samples were collected from the corresponding sites inside the drain during three seasons (winter, spring and fall). The results showed that all studied TEs in the soil varied seasonally and spatially among the locations around the drain. Most of the studied elements in the soil were higher in the southern and middle area around the drain. All studied elements in the soil were also higher in the winter than other seasons. Nickel and lead were almost non-detected during all seasons in plant tissues, while other elements were higher in the winter than other seasons. In contrast to the soil and plant tissues, water samples demonstrated lower or non-detected levels of TEs. The results also indicated that the values for the risk assessment indices differed among the studied TEs. Therefore, there is a risk of increasing the concentration of some metals in the study area due to anthropogenic pollution from the adjacent polluted drain through irrigation with contaminated water and spreading of contaminated dredged materials on agricultural fields.

Keywords: spatial variation; seasonal variation; ecological risk assessment; pollution; northern Nile Delta (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/9/7/152/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/9/7/152/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:9:y:2019:i:7:p:152-:d:247186

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().