ArticleEnvironmental monitoring and assessment2026
Ecological risk assessment of heavy metal contamination and macrobenthos response in the Apies River, South Africa.
Article in Environmental monitoring and assessment, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
0 citing papers in PubMed.
No citing paper in PubMed yet.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Heavy metal contamination in river systems has become a cause for concern due to complex transport mechanisms. Sediment plays a significant role in the behaviour and fate of metals in aquatic ecosystems. The present study was carried out to investigate seasonal heavy metal contamination (As, Cr, Cu, Fe, and Zn) and the possible response of macrobenthos to wastewater effluent discharge along the longitudinal gradient of the Apies River. The bottom sediment samples were collected from ten (A-J) sites along the longitudinal gradient of the Apies River. Five (n = 5) samples were collected from each site using acid-pretreated bottles. Digestion was carried out using aqua regia, and metal analyses were performed using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Macrobenthos were collected through substrate disturbance and the use of a dip net. Sites A and B exhibited negligible to moderate metal concentrations, whereas Sites C-J showed considerable concentrations, with Cr and Cu exceeding the guidelines for aquatic ecosystems. No definite trend was observed for seasonal variation; however, sites immediately after wastewater plant discharge points showed high contamination, which suggests their possible role in metal contamination. Macrobenthos biomass showed a negative correlation with Cr and Cu, and with the contamination degree, pollution load index, and the potential risk index (RI). Heavy metal contamination indices indicated moderate to high contamination from Sites D-J, with the RI signifying low ecological risk. These findings provide an insight into the impact of wastewater effluents on metal enrichment, hence increasing the ecological risk.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.