الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
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Abstract
Maryut and Wadi Maryut Lakes are the remaining parts of the ancient Lake Mareotis. While Wadi Maryut Lake has not been subject to discharge of wastewater and very little urban activities, Maryut Lake is the receptacle for large volumes untreated wastes. Physical and chemical characteristics, elemental concentrations, and activity concentrations of NORM in sediment, water, soil, and wild plants in both lakes were determined. The findings of the present studies can be summarized as following. First: Wadi Maryut Lake The southwestern end of the lake is relatively shadow and its sediment is characterized by higher salinity, TOM, concentration of various elements, and MPI as well as the highest activity concentrations of 232Th and 40K. Locations in the same area have the highest activity concentrations of NORM in soil. Generally, the assessment of sediment contamination confirms the importance of Wadi Maryut Lake as a reference used in the evaluation of the pollution of other basins in the depression or even of south Mediterranean coastal water bodies. The resulting radium equivalent, absorbed dose rate and effective dose equivalent for soil and sediment in most locations are below the cited values and the world average values. Second: Maryut Lake The distributions of various parameters in Maryut Lake deviate from normality and various locations were identified as outliers because of the presence of extreme value(s) as result of different industrial activities around Maryut Lake. Dissimilarities between Wadi Maryut Lake and the five sub-basins of Maryut Lake were observed but the most distinct features were that for water where almost all water’s measured characteristics were significantly different. Clustering of the sampling locations based on their analogous behavior patterns in their sediment-water or soil-plant characteristics showed separation not based on locations’ proximity. Similar to Wadi Maryut Lake, Al, Fe and Mn in sediment, soil, and wild plant have significant influence on scavenging of some elements. The concentrations of Na, K, B, and Mn in water have identical behavior. Generally, all measured parameters in both lakes are comparable with other Egyptian lakes and/or water bodies.