Contamination levels and spatial distributions of heavy metals and PAHs in surface sediment of Imam Khomeini Port, Persian Gulf, Iran

Imam Khomeini Port (IKP) is the largest Iranian commercial port. Because of many petrochemical industries and urban areas are located around this port and also having heavy ship traffic, concentrations of PAHs, mercury and other heavy metals were measured as the first time in surface sediment of the jetties. The highest concentrations of PAHs, Hg, Cu, Pb and Fe were recorded at Site 1, located in the vicinity of the petrochemical industrial zone, where ships are repaired. The highest concentration of Zn was found at Site 4, which is the jetty for loading mineral materials. The comparison between measured values in this study and some sediment quality guidelines indicated that the concentrations of mercury and PAHs are much higher than other studies. Also, the ratios of PAHs in the stations showed a mixture of both of pyrolytic and petrogenic sources with a dominance of pyrolytic sources.