الفهرس 
Statistical analysesOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 155 |  |  |
| | | from | 155 | | |
Abstract
One of Egypt’s most endangered aquatic wetlands is Edku Lake, the third largest coastal Lake in the northern region and part of the Nile Delta. Edku Lake has a big economic and environmental value. Edku Lake was exposed to many problems that affected it over the years. As a result, came the idea of this study to evaluate the Lake and get suggestions to improve the quality of the Lake. Numerous issues negatively impact Edku Lake, including sewage pollution, drying that causes the Lake’s area to decrease, the expansion of some plants and grasses which impacts the water’s quality, and excessive fishing of small fish that reduces fish productivity. Because of these problems came the aim of the study to evaluate the environmental state of Edku Lake, investigate the various changes that have taken place there, and demonstrate the detrimental effects of human activity on the Lake’s environment. It also aims to gather accurate environmental information that will support the strategies and choices of decision-makers.
To achieve the purpose of the study, there are many techniques and analyses used:
• First, it is used the spatiotemporal modeling approach in the Lake between 1973 and 2021. Various image processing such as vector analysis, spectral indices, and supervised classification were used to classify the satellite images into the identified LULC features. Water, hydrophytes, and fish farms were recognized using multi-temporal Landsat images.
• Twelve water samples were taken from Edku Lake in December 2021, covering the entire body of water. Water samples were collected, stored in acid-cleaned Polyethylene plastic stoppered bottles for subsequent analysis, maintained chilled, and transported to the laboratory in ice boxes. Three parameters were in-situ measured: pH, total dissolved solids (TDS), and chlorophyll. Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (ICPAAS) was used to measure the concentrations of (Fe, Cd, Pb, Cr, and Ni) in water samples. Bacteria from the water were separated using the spread plate technique for the microbial analyses, three bacterial species were counted (TC, FC, FS).
• Twelve sediment samples were gathered at the same sites and time of water sampling. All sediments required air drying at room temperature and sieving before being analyzed physiochemically. Electrical conductivity, TDS, and pH, which need wet samples that must be analyzed by using a meter (model H1 8314, membrane HANNA instrument), all samples must pass through a 02 mm sieve before being kept for analysis. Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (ICPAAS) was used to measure the concentrations of the heavy metals (Fe, Cd, Pb, Cr, and Ni) after the samples had been labeled, sent to the central laboratory at Ain Shams University, and crushed and finely ground at room temperature (25°C 2).
• Ten aquatic plants were identified at the sampling sites, and any hydrophytes present were sampled along with the water and sediment. But only six plant species which were the most widespread in the Lake were selected for heavy metal analysis. The levels of heavy metals in the solubilized plant tissues were identified by Using inductively coupled plasma atomic absorption spectrometry (ICPAAS).
• Six different species of common fish were collected randomly at different sites in Edku Lake namely Dicentrarchus labrax, Clarias gariepinus, Sarotherodon galilaeus, Oreochromis aureus, Oreochromis niloticus, Tilapia zillii. Fish species were caught using nets and were kept in clean polyethylene bags, and then placed in an icebox until they were transported to the laboratory for analysis. The concentrations of iron, nickel, chromium, lead, and cadmium were measured using an Inductively Coupled Plasma Atomic Absorption Spectrometry (ICPAAS)
.