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, 2017, Vol. 8, No. 2   doi: 10.5376/msb.2017.08.0002
Received: 15 Sep., 2017    Accepted: 12 Oct., 2017    Published: 20 Oct., 2017

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., 2017, Geo-accumulation index, enrichment factor and quantification of contamination of heavy metals in soil receiving cassava mill effluents in a rural community in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria, Molecular Soil Biology, 8(2): 7-20 (doi: 10.5376/msb.2017.08.0002)

This study investigated enrichment factor, geo-accumulation index and quantification of contamination of heavy metals in cassava mill effluents contaminated soil by smallholder cassava processors in a rural community in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. Data used for the environmental risk assessment is from secondary sources. The assessment was carried out under two background scenarios viz: geometric (BGM) and median mean (BMM). 50% of mean detected individual metals was used as mean data for location that the metal was not detected. Assessment was carried out following well established protocol. Results showed that enrichment factor (EF), geo-accumulation index (Igeo), improved Nemerow Index (INI), Metal enrichment index (MEI) and quantification of contamination (QoC) in soil heavy metals (viz: Fe, Cr, Zn, Cu, Co, Ni, Mn, Pb and Cd) receiving cassava mill effluents in a rural community of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria revealed un-contamination to moderately contamination for Igeo, NMI, background rank to significant enrichment for EF, no enrichment to moderate enrichment for MEI, and positive values of quantification of contamination is an indication of pollution/contamination due to anthropogenic sources. The study further showed that cassava mill effluents are contributing to soil heavy metal contamination in study area.

Cassava mill effluents; Enrichment factor; Geo-accumulation factor; Heavy metals; Quantification of contamination