Impact of land development along the western Mediterranean coast of Egypt regarding surfactant sources, interfering elements and ecotoxicity.

The effect of recent land development of the western side of the Egyptian Mediterranean coast on the fates, behaviors, interactions, and ecotoxicology of surfactant (LAS), F, Br, B, Ca, Mg, and P was studied. Samples of seawater and sediments were collected from 15 stations at different depths representing, 5 perpendicular sectors. Elevated levels of LAS were identified in seawater columns in the El-Hamam (467.3 ± 220.8 μg/L) and El-Dabaa (480.0 ± 314.1 μg/L) stations. LAS homologue in sediment was in the range of 0.013-0.024, 0.042-0.184, 0.086-0.402, and 0.025-0.058 μg/g for C10, C11, C12, and C13, respectively. Studied parameters showed mixture risk characterization ratios RCRmix  > 1 for algae, invertebrates, and fish in seawater and sediments, except for P, which showed low risk (RCRmix  ≤ 1) in sediment. Acute relative contribution (RC) of LAS reflected that fish were the most sensitive species (RCFish  = 48.5), followed by algae (RCAlgae  = 44.4) and invertebrates (RCInvert  = 7.1).