Ahmed A. Allam1
Faculty of Science, Beni-Suef University, Beni-Suef, Egypt
Title: Accumulation of heavy metal pollutants in the components of petroleum polluted arid ecosystem
Biography
Biography: Ahmed A. Allam1
Abstract
The coast of Arabian Gulf is considered among the highest oil impacted regions in Saudi Arabia. Heavy metals contamination in coastal and marine environments is becoming an increasingly serious threat to both the naturally stressed marine ecosystems and humans relying on marine resources for food, industry and recreation. The heavy metal concentration in soil, plants and rodents were measured. The bioaccumulation of five heavy metals, viz., sulfur (S), vanadium (V), nickel (Ni), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) in the soil, plant, the wild Libyan jird Meriones libycus and the wield mouse Mus musculus were estimated. In the jird and mouse, the heavy metals were measured in fur, liver, kidney. The results showed that the bioaccumulation in polluted sites reached five times that in the reference unpolluted site. The mean values of the liver enzymes activities increased in the animals collected from contaminated sites. The bioaccumulation of heavy metals decreases the reduced glutathione (GSH) and increases the lipid peroxidation and nitric oxide (NO), and produced histopathological changes in liver and kidneys of jird and mouse in the polluted sites.