Effects of Pollutants on Some Aquatic Organisms in Temsah Lake in Egypt

摘要

Temsah lake is considered one of the wild life features in Egypt in general and in the Suez Canal region in particular. Through field experiment, concentrations of some pesticides which are used around the area, were monitored in the tissues of some birds of prey (wild birds), some species of algae, fish and crustaceans. The results obtained revealed: (1) The presence of some Organochlorines (OC) in the tissues of many of the tested birds represented in (DDE, Heptachlore, HCH, Dicofole). (2) The presence of high residues of Organophosphorus (OP) pesticides represented in malathion and diazinon in most of the tested birds. But they were not detected with high levels in any of fish, crustaceans or algae. (3) The presence of high concentrations of (OC) compounds in the tissues of algae, crab, mullet and some birds (moorhen-cormorant and gulls). Meanwhile, none of those compounds was detected in the water samples. (4) The presence of high levels of all detected pesticides in the tissues of crab makes it the very acceptable bioindicator to mirror the pollution of the lake, then followed by algae. (5) Pollutants can be transferred through the food chain which causes biomagnification of them in the bodies of the higher organisms in the food chain. It could be concluded that implementation of the environmental management practices in Lake Temsah is still needed to protect these ecosystems from more pollutions which could affect human health and environment.