Mercury pollution of sediments from the River Tisa (Serbia)
2020
Štrbac, Snežana | Ninkov, Jordana | Raičević, Petar | Vasić, Nebojša | Kašanin-Grubin, Milica | Gajica, Gordana | Milić, Dubravka
Mercury (Hg) has been listed as a global high priority pollutant by manyinternational organizations due to its mobility and persistence in the environments and hightoxicity to organisms. This research was conducted with the aims to determine: (i) total Hgcontent (THg) and its spatial distribution in sediments of river Tisa along the river course,(ii) possible sources of THg and (iii) degree of THg pollution in sediments from the riverTisa through different criteria. Total Hg in the sediments ranged from 0.07 to 0.49 mg kg-1,with mean ± S.D. value of 0.26 ± 0.10 mg kg-1. The highest mean value of THg (0.30 mg kg-1)was found in the lower stream, while the lowest (0.13 mg kg-1) was found in the tributary.According to Principal Component Analyses (PCA) strong positive loading of metals in allparts of the river Tisa is mainly controlled from the same sources. These sources are relatedto anthropogenic activities based on calculated Enrichment Factor (EF) values. Total Hg arehigher than background value. According to the Republic of Serbia official standard, THgvalues of river Tisa sediments were within the range of maximum permissible values. Compared with National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) guideline, 80.49%of sediment samples indicated that THg in the river Tisa sediments represented minimal andpossible risk towards the living organisms. Integrating the results of pollution assessment,it could be concluded that THg in river Tisa sediments in Serbia demonstrates considerable contamination according to Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo), and Contaminant Factor (CF),and high pollution risk according to Potential Environmental Risk Index (PERI).
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