Baseline Assessment of sediment pollution by metals. A case study from Cienfuegos Bay, Cuba Mirella Peña-Icart a,b , Carolina Mendiguchía b , Margarita Villanueva-Tagle c , Yoelvis Bolaños-Alvarez d , Carlos Alonso-Hernandez d , Carlos Moreno b , Mario Simeón Pomares-Alfonso a, ⁎ a Institute of Material Science and Technology (IMRE), University of Havana, Zapata s/n CP: 10400, Cuba b Faculty of Marine Sciences and Environmental, University of Cádiz, República Saharaui CP: 11510, Spain c Faculty of Chemistry, University of Havana, Zapata s/n CP: 10400, Cuba d Cienfuegos City Environmental Study Center, St. Castillo de Jagua, Km 1 ½. A.P. 5, 59350 Cienfuegos City, Cuba abstract article info Article history: Received 17 March 2016 Received in revised form 15 November 2016 Accepted 19 November 2016 Available online xxxx Sediments were grouped in three zones of the bay: two in the northern basin with higher metal contamination; and another in the southern basin, where lithogenic metals were predominant. Sediment pollution classification made using Index of geoaccumulation and Enrichment factor was consistent, indicating higher accumulation of Cd and Pb in the northern basin. The negative influence of activities linked to petrol was predicted by V / Ni and V / (Ni + V) ratios. Cd and Pb did not represent a potential risk; while Cu and Ni could be risky for biota in most sediment, according to Screening Quick Reference Tables (SQuiRTs). Comparison of bioavailable fraction of metals with references in SQuiRTs corroborated the low potential damage on the biota due to As, Cd, Pb, Cr, Zn; and a higher potential damage due to Cu; while an attenuation of the risk due to Ni predicted by SQuiRTs could be expected. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Metal contamination Cienfuegos Bay Bioavailable concentration Contamination indexes Quality sediment guidelines As known, marine sediment can be adopted as a good indicator of metal pollution in coastal environments (Danielsson et al., 1999). Inter- estingly, no consensus has been reached regarding the more convenient method to assessment metal pollution in sediments neither the anthro- pogenic impact expected on the biota from content of metal in sedi- ments. In this context, most widely used methods can be classified in two categories: methods based on the determination of a) the total or b) partial concentration of metal in sediments. Generally, the last methods attempt to evaluate the bioavailable fraction of metal (Peña Icart, 2012). Among methods based on total metal concentration, one of the most employed is the comparison of concentration determined in sediment with reference concentration in Screening Quick Reference Tables (SQuiRTs) (Buchman, 2008). Also, some indexes, for instance, the En- richment factor (EF) (Sinex & Helz, 1981) and Index of geoaccumulation (I geo )(Müller, 1969; Ruiz, 2001) have been used. Both indexes attempt to evaluate metal anomalous concentrations above the natural back- ground. Besides, Vanadium-to-Nickel (V / Ni) and Vanadium-to-Vana- dium plus Nickel (V / (Ni + V) total concentrations ratios have been employed, particularly, to evaluate the impact of human activities relat- ed to management of petroleum and its derivate (Osuji & Adesiyan, 2005). On the other hand, bioavailable fraction of metal has been esti- mated by using simple partial digestion methods, which generate a unique solution for analysis; and sequential partial methods, which pro- duce more than one solution to be analyzed (Pérez Santana et al., 2007; Tessier et al., 1979). Sequential methods are very laborious and time consuming (Peña-Icart et al., 2011); while simple partial digestion methods are the most used for determination of bioavailable fraction of metals. Recently, the use of a hydrochloric acid solution at pH 1 was proposed as an efficient alternative extraction method to estimate the bioavailable fraction of metal (Peña-Icart et al., 2014). In Cienfuegos Bay, several studies on metal assessment contamina- tion in sediments have been conduced (Ablanedo et al., 1992; Alonso-Hernandez et al., 2004; Alonso-Hernandez et al., 2006; González, 1991; Helguera et al., 2011; Peña-Icart et al., 2011; Pérez Santana et al., 2007). Interestingly enough, the assessment of metal pol- lution using sediment quality guidelines was reported only once (Helguera et al., 2011); while the use of indexes of metal contamination have not been reported. In this context, the aim of this paper was to carry out a study of metal pollution in sediments of Cienfuegos Bay using several indexes of metal contamination and SQuiRTs. Additionally, techniques of the statistical multivariate analysis of data are also applied. The Cienfuegos Bay is a semi-enclosed bay connected to the Caribbe- an Sea by a narrow channel and divided in two well defined hydro- graphic basins, the northern and the southern basin. A more detailed description of the bay was reported previously (Pérez Santana et al., 2007). The surface sediment (10 cm) sampling was carried out by using a Petersen grab in 2009, 2011 and 2012 at nine stations (Fig. 1). The 10 cm sampled sediments represent an average value for, Marine Pollution Bulletin xxx (2016) xxx–xxx ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: mpomares@imre.uh.cu, m_pomares@yahoo.com (M.S. Pomares-Alfonso). MPB-08195; No of Pages 5 http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.042 0025-326X/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Marine Pollution Bulletin journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/marpolbul Please cite this article as: Peña-Icart, M., et al., Assessment of sediment pollution by metals. A case study from Cienfuegos Bay, Cuba, Marine Pol- lution Bulletin (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.marpolbul.2016.11.042