Phosphorus in Sediments of Lake Edku, Egypt. The Influence of Chemical and Grain Size Parameters

Lake Edku is one of the Nile Delta shallow brackish water coastal lagoons with communications with the southeastern Mediterranean.

Sediment samples were recovered from the top 10 cm of the lake bottom to study principally their total, inorganic and organic phosphorus. Related sediment parameters such as particle size, organic carbon, carbonate and iron contents were also studied in detail.

It is shown that the lake sediments are generally a sand-silt-clay mud enriched with carbonate (11.4-42%), organic carbon (0.9-11.4%) and iron (1.6-5.6%).

The total phosphorus content in these sediments is 503-1329 μg/g, inorganic phosphorus, 468-954 μg/g and organic phosphorus, 35-526 μg/g.