Biomonitoring of radioactive contamination using benthic invertebrate communities in Manzala Lake, Egypt

Manzala Lake, the largest in Egypt’s Nile Delta, hassignificant human activity. The Lake’s ecological conditionhas recently been impacted by a significant increase inagricultural, industrial, and urban wastewater discharge. Avaluable tool for monitoring the water quality of ManzalaLake is the sensitivity of invertebrate species to varioustypes of pollution, such as radioactive contamination.Activity concentrations of radionuclides Radium-226 (226Ra),Thorium-232 (232Th), Potassium-40 ( 40K), and Caesium-137(137Cs) were measured in water, sediments and benthicinvertebrate samples in 2020. The benthic community’sspatial distribution and the radionuclides’ bioaccumulationwere evaluated to determine possible relationships.Thirty taxa of benthic invertebrates were recognised.The data illustrated that the mean activity concentrationof radionuclides in water was in the order of 40K > 232Th >226Ra > 137Cs, which changed into 40K > 226Ra > 232Th > 137Csin the sediment and benthic invertebrates. Gastropodaand Ostracoda are the dominating groups of benthos inthe lake and are related to the highest concentrations ofradionuclides. The benthos species with shells dominatedat the sites with the highest activity concentration of 226Ra,while soft-bodied organisms dominated in sites with thehighest average 137Cs activity in these samples.

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Opracowanie rekordu ze środków MEiN, umowa nr SONP/SP/546092/2022 w ramach programu "Społeczna odpowiedzialność nauki" - moduł: Popularyzacja nauki i promocja sportu (2022-2023).