An investigation on Accumulation of Lead and Nickel in Roots and Leaves of Planted mangrove Forest (Avicennia marina) in Imam Khomeini Port

Mangrove forests are tropical forest ecosystems located in coastal areas. Because of the redox conditions، periodic flooding، high content of clay and organic matters، Mangroves have an important role to remove heavy metals and organic pollutant from water and adjacent coastal ecosystems، and they often act as sinks for heavy metals. There has been an increase in development trend recently in Southern Iran. The pollution related to these developments has to somehow become under control. One of the ways to deal with such a problem is to benefit from ecosystem services. Mangroves can be a good solution to absorb and collect many pollutants from the water column. In some south coastal areas of Iran، including the local mudflats، these trees have been planted. In order to measure the concentration of Lead and Nickel (two of the most important polluting heavy metals) in mangrove ecosystem، 36 stations were randomly located. In each site، sediments، roots، and leaves of these trees were sampled on May 2012. The results indicated that the mean Lead concentration in the sediment، roots and leaves were 19. 7، 5. 95 and 1. 18 mg/g respectively and the mean Nickel concentrations were 77. 8، 36. 92 and 11. 94 mg/g respectively. There was a significant difference between metal concentration in tissues and sediments (P<0. 05). Results depicted that the transition of lead to root tissue is more than leaves. The transition of lead to root tissues was 0. 29 times the amount of sediments، and in leaves was 0. 05، and transition of Nickel to root tissues was 0. 74 of sediments while in leaves was 0. 15.