Heavy Metals Assessment in Sediments Beds of Habbaniyah Lake, Iraq

Heavy Metals (HMs) concentrations in a sediment sample from Habbaniyah Lake (HL), Iraq (Cr, Cd, Ni, Fe, Co, Zn, Pb, and Cu). 33 locations have been selected in the field of study from October 2020 to April 2021 to evaluate the contamination of HMs in sediments by using pollution load index (PLI), contamination factor (CF), Contamination degree (CD), and geo-accumulation index (I-geo). Atomic Absorption Spectrometer AAS was used to determine heavy metal concentrations (USA Phoenix-986). The following are the average concentrations: 2152.97 mg/kg for Fe, 47.35 mg/kg for Pb, 25.18 mg/kg for Cr, 18.00 mg/kg for Ni, 10.60 mg/kg for Co, 9.57 mg/kg for Zn, 4.53 mg/kg for Cu and 3.53 mg/kg for Cd during the research time. The average concentration of Pb, Ni, Fe, and Cd surpassed the USEPA recommendation. Cd is responsible for extremely high contamination; Pb is responsible for moderate pollution and severe contamination at some places based on the contamination factor (CF). According to contamination degree (CD), The Lake is classified as significant pollution degree and very pollution degree in some sites. Results indicated that HL is not contaminated with HMs according to geo-accumulation index and PLI for all sample locations during the study period. The lake is unpolluted by Fe, Cr, Co, Ni, Zn, and Cu according to contamination factor (CF), geo-accumulation index (I-geo), pollution load index (PLI), and Contamination degree (CD).