Influence of land cover indices and surface temperature on the metals bioaccumulation by three Macrophytes in Lake Burullus, Egypt

Abstract

AbstractNowadays, the importance of using macrophytes in accumulation of heavy metals has gained great concerns. So, this study aimed at extracting the land use/cover types of three indices and surface temperatures in the habitats inside 100 m buffers from recent satellite images around three highly economic macrophytes namely; Phragmites australis, Typha domingensis and Potamogeton pectinatus species. In addition to land surface temperature (LST), three important indices expressing the land cover of habitats namely; normalized different vegetation index (NDVI), normalized different water index (NDWI), and normalized different moisture index (NDMI) were extracted to find out there influence on the efficiency of macrophytes in the accumulation of these metal ions; Fe, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb. The Polynomial regression models were calculated to predict the accumulation factors of plants within the remotely sensed indices and LST. Results showed different accumulation values for individual or more metals in the below-ground and above-ground parts of macrophytes within different habitats. This study considers as an innovative approach using remote sensing technique and satellite images for the selecting of species that can accumulate more metals within different habitats. The obtained results will be useful for the optimal management of these macrophytes in Lake Burullus, a Ramsar site.