Assessment of physicochemical characteristics and some heavy metals of Ossiomo River, Ologbo – a tributary of Benin River, Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Assessment of the physicochemical characteristics and some heavy metals of Ossiomo River, Ologbo- a tributary of Benin River, Southern Nigeria was carried out from April 2012 to December 2012. Three stations were studied from upstream to downstream with a distance of about 2 kilometres between each station. A total of twenty-two (22) physicochemical parameters and some heavy metals were studied. Air temperature ranged from the mean 27.01 to 29.57°C, water temperature 25.87 to 27.56°C, depth 1.32 to 1.705m, flow velocity 0.08 to 0.13m/s, transparency 1.01 to 1.30m, pH 5.76 to 6.01, electrical conductivity 62.03 to 70.11μS/cm, turbidity 3.97 to 4.39 NTU, total suspended solid 5.01 to 5.80mg/l, total solid 38.82 to 42.11mg/l, total dissolve solid 29.60 to 33.84mg/l, DO 7.12 to 7.54mg/l, BOD5 1.51 to 2.60mg/l, alkalinity 48.63 to 53.28mg/l, the cations (sodium 1.35 to 1.43mg/l, potassium 0.25 to 0.26mg/l, calcium 0.92 to 1.00mg/l, magnesium 0.44 to 0.52mg/l), chloride 26.44 to 36.39mg/l, and the nutrient components (phosphorus 0.25 to 0.33mg/l, nitrate 0.16 to 0.20 mg/l, sulphate 0.88 to 0.94mg/l). Heavy metals level were generally low ranging from 0.05 to 2.61mg/l (cadmium 0.05 to 0.51mg/l, lead 0.06 to 0.09mg/l, zinc 0.11 to 0.12mg/l, copper 0.39 to 0.41mg/l, iron 2.00 to 2.61mg/l. Mean across stations were compared using Analysis of Variance and only three characteristics namely, air temperature, water temperature and flow velocity were significant. In station 1 (upstream), air temperature and water temperature were significantly higher than other 2 stations (downstream) while the flow velocity was significantly faster in station 3 than both upstream and midstream stations. A marked seasonal significant faster flow velocity was recorded in the wet than in the dry season. Furthermore, a significant (P < 0.05) pattern of seasonal variation was observed in seven (7) characteristics, total solids, calcium, magnesium, chloride, phosphate, nitrate and sulphate. Anthropogenic activities had negatively impacted on station 2 of the river, although the recorded values were still within acceptable limits.Keywords: Physicochemical, Characteristics, Ossiomo River, Assessment, Heavy metals, Ologbo

Water Characteristics Assessment, Bioaccumulation and Health Risk Evaluation of Possible Ingestion of Toxic and Essential Metals in Chromidotilapia guntheri Sourced from Ada River, West Africa

“…Ringim (2015) recorded higher ranges of 6.82-8.18 (rainy season) and 6.98-7.67(dry season) for the Challawa River, Kano state. The pH values obtained in this study are quite higher than the ranges (5.76-6.01) observed by Ikhouriah and Oronsaye (2016) for the Ologbo River and 5.53-5.75 for the Iguedo River reported by Udebuana et al (2014). These high pH values might be attributed to the high level of carbonate-rich soil (carbonate and bicarbonate) in Udebuana et al (2014).…”

Evaluation of physico-chemical parameters and heavy metal concentrations in muscles of Synodontis courteti and Mormyrus macrophthalmus from lower River Benue, Ibi, Taraba, Nigeria

“…Higher values recorded for Zn (0.625 mg/kg) in this study was recorded in S. courteti was however lower than that reported in flesh of H. fasciatus, O. niloticus, C. nigrodigitatus, C. gariepinus by Wangboje and Ikhuabe (2015) [36] in the Niger River at Agenebode, Edo state. It so also lower than values reported by Idodo-umeh (2003) [16] in ~ 130 ~ Olomoro river of Delta state but higher than those reported by Saeed and Shakar (2008) [30] in O. niloticus in North Delta Lake, Egypt. The lower value report in this study could be due to differences in the species, sizes, ages, and sampling periods (Idodo-umeh, 2003) [16] .…”

“…It so also lower than values reported by Idodo-umeh (2003) [16] in ~ 130 ~ Olomoro river of Delta state but higher than those reported by Saeed and Shakar (2008) [30] in O. niloticus in North Delta Lake, Egypt. The lower value report in this study could be due to differences in the species, sizes, ages, and sampling periods (Idodo-umeh, 2003) [16] . The higher concentration of Zinc in this study may occur as a result of anthropogenic activities and vehicle movement taking place around the environment.…”

Spatial and temporal variations of physical-chemical parameters of the Akor River in Ikwuano local government of Abia state, Nigeria

“…Low Ca 2+ values may cause osmotic problem and deformities in shell fish such as crayfish, oyster, crab, prawn, periwinkle, and aquatic snails (Hessen et al, 2017;Jeziorski and Smol, 2017). Ca 2+ values recorded in this study were relatively lower compared to some studies (Ikhuoriah and Oronsaye, 2016;Anyanwu and Emeka, 2019;Anyanwu et al, 2022). However, the values were within the range recorded in the Ossah River, Umuahia, Abia state, Southeast Nigeria (Anyanwu and Ukaegbu, 2019).…”