Unesco-Ihe Institute for Water Education
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNESCO-IHE INSTITUTE FOR WATER EDUCATION Distribution of Metals in the Montenegrin Part of Skadar Lake Mirjana VEMIC MSc Thesis ES 11.52 April 2011 Netherlands and Western Balkans Environmental Network Distribution of Metals in the Montenegrin Part of Skadar Lake Master of Science Thesis by Mirjana VEMIC Supervisor Prof. P.N.L. Lens, PhD, MSc (UNESCO-IHE) Mentor D.P.L. Rousseau, PhD, MSc (UNESCO-IHE) Examination committee Prof. P.N.L. Lens, PhD, MSc (UNESCO-IHE), Chairman D.P.L. Rousseau, PhD, MSc (UNESCO-IHE) G. Du Laing, PhD, MSc (Ghent University) This research is done for the partial fulfillment of requirements for the Master of Science degree at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, Delft, the Netherlands Delft April 2011 The findings, interpretations and conclusions expressed in this study do neither necessarily reflect the views of the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, nor of the individual members of the MSc committee, nor of their respective employers. With my infinite gratitude dedicated to my father Vukic and mother Zorica for their unlimited love and support throughout all my life and their motivation and encouragement to always reach my dreams. Abstract Metal contamination in Skadar Lake, the largest lake on the Balkan Peninsula, was studied during this research. Skadar Lake, which is a transboundary lake shared between two countries - Montenegro and Albania, represents an area of regional importance with a high level of species diversity, as well as diversity of habitats and landscapes, therefore it has a mosaic spread of ecosystems. The lake is famous for a wide range of endemic and rare, or even endangered plant and animal species. Especially due to the bird fauna, the lake has a highly significant international importance. The Montenegrin part of the lake has been designated as National Park in 1983 and has been included in the Ramsar list in 1995. Different anthropogenic pressures have influenced the fragile equilibriums of the lake ecosystem, either directly or indirectly. For understanding the existing and potential effects of metals on the aquatic environment and human life, it was necessary to investigate the current concentrations and spatial distribution characteristics of metal pollutants in Skadar Lake. At selected sites metal levels in different compartments (water, sediment and lake biota) were monitored with main focus on the food chain, in order to determine the risk of metal bioaccumulation. Results showed low levels of metals in the lake surface and bottom water but high levels of some metals in lake sediments. Sequential extraction indicates that the mineral fraction bounds the majority of chromium, nickel and copper in lake‘s sediment. Based on the guidelines for freshwater ecosystems, adverse effects are expected to happen due to high concentrations of nickel in all ten stations from Skadar Lake. Metals (Fe, Pb, Cd, Cr, Mn) were present in both plant samples (Phragmites communis and Vallisneria spiralis), at high concentrations, but they were not detected in two types of endemic fish‘s tissue (gill, muscle, liver), indicating that consumption is safe for humans. Presented research was focused more on the preliminary investigation of the metals in Skadar Lake, and due to some limitations in the period of research (absence of some species from the food chain, insufficient time for research, doing the research only in Montenegrin part of the lake, not considering the tributaries), might not give an accurate insight in the metal concentrations and loads. In order to determine and quantify the latter, detailed identification of sources of metals, spatially and temporally distributed monitoring campaigns for the entire lake (including the Albanian part), and investigation of complete ecological food chains can be recommended for further research. Keywords: Metals, Skadar Lake, sequential extraction of metals (SEM), bioaccumulation Mirjana VEMIC i ii MSc Thesis Acknowledgements It is a pleasure to thank those who made this research possible. Firstly, I am heartily thankful to my supervisors, Dr. Diederik Rousseau and Prof. Piet Lens for their valuable suggestions, remarks, technical advices, patience and encouragement throughout this research. Thank you so much, it was pleasure working with you. The presented study would not have been possible without the support of the Netherlands and Western Balkan Environmental Network project (www.newenproject.org). Accordingly, I am highly indebted to all the partners of the NEWEN project for funding my MSc studies and research, and I would like to put across my sincere gratitude to all people that are behind this project. Special thanks for UNESCO-IHE partners, Dr. Diederik Rousseau, Dr. Tineke Hooijmans and Dr. Henk Lubberding. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to be part of this project. I am also deeply grateful to all staff members at the Biotechnical Institute in Podgorica (Montenegro), especially to my project coordinator Svetlana Perovic (and her husband Andrej Perovic) without whose cooperation I could not have gotten such relevant data. Thank you so much for helping me that my sampling campaign goes in the best manner and with great pleasure. Additionally, I would like to thank all institutions, organizations and individuals who helped that my fieldwork and data collection goes in the best manner. Firstly, special thanks to "Skadar Lake National Park" staff members for their technical support and their permission to do research on Skadar Lake. Secondly, many thanks go to Prof. Gijs Du Laing from Ghent University (Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry and Applied Ecochemistry), for analyzing part of my data. Vule, thank you so much for your kind assistance and support during sampling. You made my data collection quicker and easier. Many thanks to Prof. Slavoljub Mijovic for providing me with all the necessary background information's about the lake, and to Dr. Zorica Leka for allowing me to use Technical Institute laboratory facilities during my sampling campaign. Thank you very much, without your help this research would not have been possible. I want to express my deep appreciation to all UNESCO-IHE laboratory staff, Fred Kruis, Peter Heerings, Lyzette Robbemont, Frank Wiegman and Ferdi Battes, for their disponibility and advices. I owe my deepest gratitude to Don van Galen whose encouragement, supervision and support from the preliminary to the concluding level of my research enabled me to successfully complete my laboratory work. Thank you so much, your assistance was priceless! Last but not least, my acknowledgements go to all my friends and colleagues for their encouragement and support during this research. Thank you! Mirjana VEMIC iii iv MSc Thesis Table of Contents Abstract.................................................................................................................................i Acknowledgements.............................................................................................................iii List of tables.......................................................................................................................viii List of figures.......................................................................................................................ix List of symbols......................................................................................................................x 1 INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................1 1.1 Background and problem statement...........................................................................1 1.2 Research objectives....................................................................................................3 1.3 Research questions.....................................................................................................3 2 LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................................5 2.1 Definitions of metals, their toxicity and sources.......................................................5 2.1.1 Natural and anthropogenic sources of metals........................................................6 2.2 Metals in the aquatic ecosystem...............................................................................7 2.2.1 Metals in the water................................................................................................7 2.2.2 Metals in the sediment...........................................................................................7 2.3 Bioaccumulation and biomagnifications in aquatic ecosystem.................................8 2.4 Metals pollution in Balkan region..............................................................................9 2.4.1 Mining and environment......................................................................................10 2.4.2 Transition vectors.................................................................................................10 2.4.3 Mining sites in the Western Balkans...................................................................12 2.4.4 The importance of river transport........................................................................12 2.4.5 Environmental situation in Balkan region today................................................12 2.4.6 Situation in Montenegro.....................................................................................13 3 STUDY AREA................................................................................................................17