Assessment of Some Heavy Metals in Arbutus pavarii Pamp. Fruits in Relation to Roadside Exposure in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar, Libya

Abstract

Road traffic represents a potential source of metal contamination in roadside environments, particularly through exhaust and non-exhaust emissions. This study investigated the concentrations of selected heavy metals in Arbutus pavarii Pamp. fruits collected from three locations in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar, Libya, situated at different distances from the road: Lamluda (5 m), Taret (10 m), and Dabousiya (50 m). Iron (Fe), copper (Cu), and nickel (Ni) were determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometry (AAS), and differences among locations were evaluated by one-way ANOVA followed by Fisher’s LSD test. Fe concentrations ranged from 6.395 to 14.830 mg/kg, Cu from 4.848 to 9.562 mg/kg, and Ni from 1.279 to 2.963 mg/kg dry weight. Fe differed significantly among locations (p = 0.0044), with the highest concentration recorded in Taret and the lowest in Dabousiya, whereas differences in Cu and Ni were not statistically significant (p > 0.05). Although some of the higher metal concentrations occurred at the more road-exposed sites, no consistent distance-dependent pattern was observed across all three elements. The findings therefore indicate spatial variation and possible traffic-associated metal enrichment, but do not provide definitive evidence of hazardous heavy-metal contamination or of accumulation exclusively derived from traffic. Further investigation incorporating soil and road-dust analysis is recommended to clarify the sources of metal accumulation in A. pavarii fruits.