Sylvester Chibueze Izah , Sunday Etim Bassey , Elijah Ige Ohimain

Department of Biological Sciences, Faculty of Science, Niger Delta University, Wilberforce Island, Bayelsa State, Nigeria
Author    Correspondence author
Molecular Soil Biology, 2018, Vol. 9, No. 3   doi: 10.5376/msb.2018.09.0003
Received: 25 Oct., 2017    Accepted: 20 Dec., 2017    Published: 05 Jan., 2018

This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Izah S.C., Bassey S.E., and Ohimain E.I., 2018, Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in cassava mill effluents contaminated soil in a rural community in the Niger Delta Region of Nigeria, Molecular Soil Biology, 9(1): 1-11 (doi:10.5376/msb.2018.09.0003)

 

This study evaluated the ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in cassava mill effluents contaminated soil in rural community in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Secondary data was used for the ecological risk assessment. Two background scenarios i.e. geometric mean (BGM) and median mean (BMM) was used as the reference value. The heavy metals that were assessed for ecological risk include viz: Cr, Zn, Cu, Co, Ni, Mn, Pb and Cd. 50% of mean detected individual heavy metals were considered for the location that was not detected. Assessment of the ecological risk was carried out following well established protocol. The results of the potential ecological risk (ER), Ecological risk index (ERI) and Monomial potential ecological risk (MPER) of heavy metals showed low risk under both scenarios except for Cd in one of the locations that showed moderate risk for MPER under both background scenarios in wet season. The distribution of the heavy metals based on potential ecological risk were in the order; Cd > Ni > = Pb > Co > Cu> Cr > Mn = Zn (BMM) and Cd > Pb > Ni = Co > Cu = Cr > Mn > Zn (BGM) for wet season and Cd > Pb = Ni = Cu > Co > Cr > Mn = Zn (BMM) and Cd > Pb > Cu = Co > Ni > Cr > Mn = Zn for dry season. The study showed low ecological risk associated with cassava mill discharged into the environment. cassava mill effluents on soil

Cassava mill effluents; Contamination factor; Ecological risk index; Heavy metals