(榮譽)學位 課程 Bachelor of Social Sciences (Hons) in Environment and Resources Management
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EFFECTS OF HEAVY METAL ON MUDFLAT ECOSYSTEM BY LEUNG MAAN SZE, MICHELLE STUDENT NO.:14677040 環境及資源管理社會科學學士 (榮譽)學位 課程 BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (HONS) IN ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCES MANAGEMENT April/2016 畢業論文 PROJECT i Effects of heavy metal on mudflat ecosystem BY LEUNG MAAN SZE, MICHELLE STUDENT NO. 14677040 AN HONOURS PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SOCIAL SCIENCES (HONOURS) IN ENVIRONMENT AND RESOURCES MANAGEMENT HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY APRIL / 2016 ii HONG KONG BAPTIST UNIVERSITY April /2016 We hereby recommend that the Honours Project by Miss. Leung Maan Sze, Michelle entitled "Effects of environmental pollutants on intertidal mudflat ecosystem" be accepted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Bachelor of Social Sciences (Honours) in Environment and Resources Management. Dr. Wei Xi Chief Adviser Second Examiner Overall Grade : iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. X. Wei who gave valuable advice and guidance on my Honours Project and provided assistance in laboratory work. Thanks are given to Dr. H. C. Chim and Dr. K. L. Chow whose provided assistance in laboratory work also. I would also like to thanks Mr. C. H. Yeung, technician of Geography Department who provided equipment for conducting fieldwork. And thanks are given to my friends: Vicky Lau and Vitus Li who offered assistance in my fieldwork described in this Honours Project. _________________ Student’s signature Date:_____________ i Abstract Environmental pollutants like heavy metals can have different pathways to discharge into water and sediment. Impact of heavy metal on the mudflat’s ecosystem was studied in Ha Pak Nai and San Tau. Concentration of heavy metal in water, composition of grain size in sediment were tested and number of species and individual of crabs and snails were counted in this study. The concentrations of heavy metal in water were similar in Ha Pak Nai and San Tau. The physical parameters of water in two study areas was similar while the amount of conductivity was higher in San Tau than Ha Pak Nai by 13161.5 µS/cm. Mean percentage of silt sediment in Ha Pak Nai was more than in San Tau by 29.7%. Both the communities of crabs and snails were different in the two study area. More crabs species were investigated in Ha Pak Nai while more snails species were investigated in San Tau. Dominance index was also calculated by using the crabs and snails. Dominance index was 0.76 in Ha Pak Nai and 0.21 in San Tau. To reduce the heavy metal contamination in mudflat, a better management is needed. 8761 ii TABLE OF CONTENT Page Acknowledgement i Abstract ii Table of Content iii List of Tables v List of Figures vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background 1 1.2 Introduction of Study Area 3 1.2.1 Ha Pak Nai 3 1.2.2 San Tau 3 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Global Situation of Heavy Metal Contamination in Mudflat and 5 Mangrove 2.2 Hong Kong Situation of Heavy Metal Contamination in 6 Mangrove 2.3 The effect of sediment on heavy metal contamination 7 2.4 Biological Effect 8 2.5 Ecological Effect 10 2.6 Filling the Gap 13 2.7 Objectives 13 2.8 Hypothesis 14 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3.1 Fieldwork 15 3.2 Water Sample Collection 15 3.2.1 Date and Time 15 3.2.2 Sampling Sites 16 3.2.3 On-site Preparation 16 3.3 Sediment Samples Collection 16 3.3.1 Date and Time 17 3.3.2 Sampling Sites 17 3.3.3 On-site Preparation 17 3.4 Sampling of Organisms 17 3.5 Laboratory Analysis 18 3.5.1 Grain Size Analysis 19 3.5.2 Heavy Metal in Water 20 3.6 Calculation and Statistical Analysis 20 iii CHAPTER 4 RESULTS 4.1 Physical Parameters in Water 21 4.1.1 Dissolved Oxygen 21 4.1.2 Conductivity 22 4.1.3 pH Value 23 4.2 Composition of Grain Size in Sediment 24 4.2.1 Gravel 24 4.2.2 Sand 25 4.2.3 Silt 26 4.3 Heavy Metal Concentrations in Water 27 4.3.1 Chromium (Cr) 27 4.3.2 Arsenic (As) 28 4.3.3 Cadmium (Cd) 29 4.3.4 Lead (Pb) 30 4.3.5 Mercury (Hg) 30 4.4 Abundance of Species 31 4.4.1 Abundance of Crabs 31 4.4.2 Abundance of Snails 32 4.4.3 Biodiversity Index 32 CHAPTER 5 DISCUSSION 34 CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION 46 iv List of Tables Table 1 (a) Species and total number of individual of crabs in study 34 areas Table 1 (b) Species and total number of individual of snail in study 34 areas Table 2 Simpson’s Index of Ha Pak Nai and San Tau 34 Table 3 Data of different parameters in monitoring station DS3 44 and NS6 v List of Figures Figure 1 Location of study areas 4 Figure 2 Transect setting for the sampling of organisms 18 Figure 3 Dissolved oxygen level at the two study areas during 22 October and November (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 4 Conductivity at the two study areas during October and 23 November (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 5 pH value at the two study areas during October and 24 November (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 6 Mean percentage of gravel in sediment samples at the 25 two study areas (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 7 Mean percentage of sand in sediment samples at the two 26 study areas (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 8 Mean percentage of silt in sediment samples at the two 27 study areas (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 9 Mean concentration of chromium in water samples at 28 the two study areas (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 10 Mean concentration of arsenic in water samples at the 29 two study areas (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 11 Mean concentration of cadmium in water samples at the 30 two study areas (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 12 Mean concentration of Lead in water samples at the two 31 study areas (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 13 Mean concentration of Mercury in water samples at the 32 two study areas (PN: Ha Pak Nai; ST: San Tau) Figure 14 Spatial distribution of heavy metal in marine sediment 39 in Hong Kong vi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background Mudflat, also as tidal flat, is a type of coastal wetland. It is a flat and low-lying habitat. Most mudflats are finding in intertidal areas because they are affected by the tidal and so called intertidal mudflat. They are exposed during low tide and submerged during high tide (Pande and Nayak, 2013). In Hong Kong, there are many intertidal mudflats in different district such as Luk Keng in New Territories, Tsim Bei Tsui in Deep Bay area, Nai Chung in Sai Kung and Tai Ho Wan in Lantau Island (Tam and Wong, 2000). Water and sediments with mud, silt, clay and some gravel are the major elements of mudflat, the sediments are originated by land and sea (Pande and Nayak, 2013). Mudflat is one of the biomes having high productive. Mudflat has a very high biodiversity because it supports many animals such as crabs and worms etc. and plants such as mangroves and seagrass can also be found in intertidal mudflat. Infauna inside mudflat support the feeding species such as crustaceans, fish and molluscs (Cheung et al., 2008), which provide food sources to these higher trophic level of organisms (Rahmanpour, Ghorghani and Ashtiyani, 2014). Mudflat is important to different organisms especially migratory birds and shorebirds. Migratory birds will migrate a long 1 distance to breed and take rest, they stop at mudflats or estuaries to refuel in winter. As mudflat has a high biodiversity, crustaceans, infauna organisms and fish are the food sources for those migratory birds and shorebirds. In Hong Kong, about 50000 wintering waterbirds fed on Deep Bay intertidal mudflat when they passing through Hong Kong in every winter (WWF, unknown). However, rapid expansion of population size had occurred and causing urbanization and industrialization in Hong Kong. Due to the rapid development, pollution problem is serious from the past until now. Some of the mudflats are near the human activities and thus they are receiving many environmental pollutants. Heavy metals, excess nutrients are some of the environmental pollutants. Heavy metals are one of the environmental pollutants that mudflats are received. Due to heavy metals have persistent toxic effect, they are classified as hazardous pollutants in environment, even they are at a low concentration (Marcovecchio and Ferrer, 2005). Heavy metals will uptake by different organisms and accumulate in their bodies. Heavy metal bioaccumulation occurs with the food chain structure. In Hong Kong, people like going to estuarine environment such as Tung Chung Bay and Shui Hau to dig clam. They will uptake the heavy metal if they eat the seafood which contain high concentration of heavy metals. There are various factors to affect the 2 concentration of heavy metals in mudflats like the sediment size. This study is examining the heavy metal in water and assessing the effect of heavy metal on mudflat ecosystem of two mudflats in Hong Kong 1.2 Introduction of Study Area The mudflats in Ha Pak Nai and San Tau were chosen for studying the heavy metal contamination and their ecosystem.