3. Results and discussion
Figure 2 presents the mean total heavy metal concentrations ± standard deviation (SD) in mg kg-1dry weight in coastal sediments and S. persicus from three coastal town/cities on the Sea of Oman.
3.1. Metals in the sediment samples
In general, sediments exhibited wide ranges for metal concentrations. The lowest concentrations were recorded for Cd, while Cr and Mn existed in abundance relative to other metals (Fig. 2). Similar metals concentrations were obtained by Al-Rawahi7 for the coastal sediments in Muscat intertidal coastal areas. Similarly, Peer and Safahieh21 reported comparable metal levels to the present study for sedimentary metal concentrations from intertidal zone along the Iranian coasts on the Sea of Oman. The results showed no general trend in the spatial distribution of individual metals between the sites.