Sources of heavy metals in the Western Bay of Izmit surface sediments

Abstract

The study aimed to examine source apportionment of heavy metals of the surface sediments in the <63 µm size fraction. The sediment samples collected from 34 sites at the Western Bay of Izmit were subjected to a total digestion technique and analysed for major (total organic carbon, Al, Fe, Mg, and S) and trace (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sn, V, and Zn) elements by inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry. The results were compared with the marine sediment quality standards, as well as literature values reported to assess the pollution status of the sediments. A factor analysis/multiple regression (FA/MR) multivariate receptor modelling technique was used for quantitative source apportionment to estimate the contributions from each source of contamination. Source fingerprints were obtained from the literature. A varimax rotated factor analysis was applied to the whole data set, and four probable source types were identified as the iron and steel industry, paint industry, crustal and sewage for heavy metals, explaining about 84% of the total variance. Source apportionment results derived from the FA and FA/MR methods agree well with each other.

Keywords:

• Surface sediment
• Source apportionment
• Factor analysis
• Factor analysis/multiple regression
• Heavy metals
• Total organic carbon

Acknowledgements

This work was done by the Scientific and Technical Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK)-Marmara Research Center, grant number 5017509, and supported by the Greater Municipality of Izmit. We are grateful to Dr Duran Karakas for their help during sampling and analyses. The authors would like to thank the Editor of the Journal and two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments help to improve the quality of the manuscript.