Environmental Assessment, Documentation and Spatial Modeling of Heavy Metal Pollution along the Jordan Gulf of Aqaba Using Coral Reefs as Environmental Indicator Doctorate Thesis Submitted to Department of Hydrogeology and Environment Julius-Maximilians-University of Würzburg By Nedal Al Ouran from At Tafileh/Jordan Würzburg, 2005 Umweltbewertung, Dokumentation und räumliche Modellierung der Schwermetallverschmutzung entlang der Küste von Aqaba (Jordanien) unter Verwendung von Korallenriffen als Umweltindikator Dissertation zur Erlangung des naturwissenschaftlichen Doktorgrades der Bayerischen Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg vorgelegt von Nedal Al Ouran aus At Tafileh/Jordanien Würzburg, 2005 Eingereicht am: 1. Gutachter der Dissertation: Prof. Dr. P. Udluft 2. Gutachter der Dissertation: Prof. Dr. E. Salameh 1. Prüfer: Prof. Dr. P. Udluft 2. Prüfer: Prof. Dr. D. Busche Tag der mündlichen Prüfung: Doktorurkunde ausgehändigt am: Nedal M. Al Ouran i Acknowledgment I am deeply indebted to my supervisor, Professor Peter Udluft for his constant support. Through the facilities offered to me during this work, all things went very smooth, and I should acknowledge his assistance in supplying invaluable literature which was not available at the university of Würzburg or not accessible online. Without his help, this work would not have actually been possible. Deep thanks and appreciation are due to my Co-supervisor Prof Elias Salameh; University of Jordan. I will never forget the extreme confidence he has offered me pertaining the research, as I was confused at the very early stages to go ahead with such pilot work in Aqaba. I am also much indebted to Mr. Peter Zolda, University of Vienna, for the help he has offered in selecting the sampling sites, and providing one of the three cores used in this research, (to avoid further damage to the reef) in addition to the determination of the core geochronology. Without this critical and vital help, much time and efforts would have been necessary. Appreciation goes also for him as for making available data and results of his early work in Aqaba. I would like to thank my friends at the institute for their kindness and offering their help whenever needed; Mr. Armin Dünkeloh, Mr.Andreas Eizenhammer, Mr.Joachim Mederer, Mr.Bernhard Schäfers, Dr. Heike Wanke Mr. Jens Widmann. Special thanks go to Mr. Dünkeloh, who offered assistance and technical support for computer use. I must thank Dr. Mohammed Al Farajat; my friend and my ex-colleague at the institute for his early facilitation of my registration and the related administrative issue at the University of Würzburg. I have really enjoyed and benefited from the continuous discussion with him over my research. I would also like to acknowledge the support and encouragement I received from my friend Dr. Mohammed Hassouneh. I will never forget of course Mr. Ahmed Qatawneh; my friend and my diving instructor for giving hand in sampling and the continuous help in technical issues regarding the underwater instruments. I would also like to pass on my thanks to my Buddy divers, Mr. Ahmed Sari and Na’el Mohammed, who offered their help in sampling the coral reef. They have made the very hard sampling work smooth and much enjoyable. I would also like to thank the staff at Marine Science Station and Faculty of Agriculture/ Mutah University for their efforts and help, specially in conducting the early pilot phase of analysis. Special thanks go to the Mr. Ali and Fatina Turgeman for their kindness, unlimited hospitality, and of course for the family atmosphere they used to offer me whenever we get together. Another special acknowledgment goes to the World Laboratory for providing a 3-months financial support at the final stage of the research. Environmental Assessment, Documentation and Spatial Modelling ii Actually, I owe many people a lot of thanks for their involvement, direct or otherwise, in getting to this stage, I apologize if I forgot to mention some names, but however, those should know that I am extremely grateful to every one whatever he/she has offered me during this work. Lastly, I would like to thank my family for their support. I am greatly indebted to my brother Prof. Rateb Al Ouran and my sister Dr. Awatef Al Ouran who I owe much, specially their early support and advice. Above all, I cannot express my full gratitude to my wife, this such a great person who I am sure shares me these accomplishment. Nedal M. Al Ouran iii Abstract To get meaningful data for pollution assessment along the Jordanian coastline, and in order to avoid the ambiguities usually associated with the analysis of seawater and sediments, coral reefs were used as an environmental indicator as their skeletons assimilate records of metals over hundreds of years. Two phases of reef sampling were carried out. The first included regular samples taken along the coastline of Aqaba (27km long) at depths of 4-15m, and used to determine spatial distribution of pollution. The second phase included three 20cm-deep cores obtained from within the industrial zone. These cores were drilled from pre-dated communities, where the growth rate was determined earlier to be 10mm y-1, therefore the core obtained represented a period of 20 years (i.e. 1980-2000). The cores were used to reconstruct the metal pollution history at the most heavily used site along the coast (industrial zone).All samples were examined with respect to their metal content of Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni, and Cr. Almost all of them have shown records above the calculated background values. Mean values of Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni and Cr recorded along the coast were 1,25; 4,26; 9,76; 11,40; 2,29 and 10,522, µg g-1 respectively, and for core samples 1.4; 4.2; 5.7; 6.4; 2.3 and 8.21 µg g-1 respectively. Spatial distribution of metal enrichment in reef samples have shown a general and clear increasing trend towards the south. Same increasing trend was also in core samples where the six metals have shown a prominent increasing trend towards the core surface indicating an increase of coastal activities during the last twenty years. High and relatively high values were recorded at the oil port, the industrial area and main port, and thus categorized as highly impacted areas. Intermediate metal content were recorded in samples of the north beach, and thus classified as being relatively impacted, where the lowest metal concentrations were observed at the marine reserve, the least impacted site along the coast. The high enrichment of metal is attributed mainly to anthropogenic impacts. The natural inputs of the six metals studied in the Gulf of Aqaba are generally very low, due to the geographic positions and the absence of wadi discharge and as a result of low rainfall. Several potential sources of heavy metals were investigated. The industrial-related activities, port operations and phosphate dust were among the main sources currently threatening the marine ecosystem in Aqaba. Applying the Principle Components Analysis method (PCA) to all samples taken along the coastline has resulted in categorizing three different groups according to their metal enrichment, the first is composed of samples taken from the north beach and the main port with intermediate to high enrichment, the second joined the samples of the marine park and the marine reserve with low and relatively low enrichment, and the last group joined samples of the industrial zone and the oil port with high enrichment. The Principle Component Scores were also utilized to confirm the spatial distribution and relationships of the examined heavy metals along the coast. Two models (interpolated by â â SURFER 7.0 and ArcView 3.2a) were developed, the first was based on the PC scores of Environmental Assessment, Documentation and Spatial Modelling iv the first component, and shows clearly the positive anomalies in metal concentrations along the coast. The second model was developed by plotting the second factor scores on a landuse map of Aqaba. According to these models, it has shown that the positive anomalies are associated with three different zones; industrial area, the main port and the oil port. The results have shown that coral reefs can be used as good environmental indicator for assessments and monitoring processes, and they can provide data and information on both the spatial distribution of pollution and their history. The present work is the first to document the environmental status along the whole coast of Aqaba and the first to use coral reef as a tool/ indicator. Zusammenfassung Um aussagekräftige Daten zur Einschätzung der Umweltverschmutzung entlang der jordanischen Küste zu erhalten, und um die normalerweise mit der Analyse des Meereswassers und den Sedimenten entstehenden Amlugintäten zu vermeiden, wurden Korallenriffe als Umweltindikator benutzt, da sich in den Skeletten die Assimilation von Metalle über Jahrhunderte nachweisen lässt. Die Riff-Probenahmen wurden in zwei Phasen durchgeführt. Die erste Phase umfasste reguläre Proben, die entlang der Küste von Aqaba (27 km lang) in einer Tiefe von 4-15 m entnommen wurden, um die räumliche Verteilung der Verschmutzung zu bestimmen. Die zweite Phase umfasste drei 20 cm tiefe Bohrkerne, die im Bereich der Industriezone entnommen wurden, um die Geschichte der Metallverunreinigung in dem am stärksten betroffenen Bereich entlang der Küste (Industriezone) zu rekonstruieren. Diese Kerne wurden in bereits früher datierten Riff-Kommunen mit einer Wachstumsrate von 10 mm/Jahr gebohrt. Die in einem Kern erfasste Periode beträgt somit etwa 20 Jahre (d.h. 1980-2000). Alle Proben wurden auf den Metallgehalt von Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni und Cr geprüft. Fast alle Proben weisen Werte auf, die höher als die berechneten Hintergrundwerte liegen. Die verzeichneten Durchschnittswerte der regulären Proben entlang der Küste betrugen für Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn, Ni und Cr: 1,25; 4,26; 9,76; 11,40; 2,29 bzw.