Spatial distribution and potential biological risk of some metals in relation to granulometric content in core sediments from Chilika Lake, India

Abstract

The article presents first systematic report on the concentration of selected major elements [iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn)] and minor elements [zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), and cobalt (Co)] from the core sediment of Chilika Lake, India. The analyzed samples revealed higher content of Pb than the background levels in the entire study area. The extent of contamination from minor and major elements is expressed by assessing (i) the metal enrichments in the sediment through the calculations of anthropogenic factor (AF), pollution load index (PLI), Enrichment factor (EF), and geoaccumulation index (Igeo) and (ii) potential biological risks by the use of sediment quality guidelines like effect range median (ERM) and effect range low (ERL) benchmarks. The estimated indices indicated that sediment is enriched with Pb, Ni, Cr, Cu and Co. The enrichment of these elements seems to be due to the fine granulometric characteristics of the sediment with Fe and Mn oxyhydroxides being the main metal carriers and fishing boats using low grade paints, fuel, and fishing technology using lead beads fixed to fishing nets. Trace element input to the Chilika lake needs to be monitored with due emphasis on Cr and Pb contaminations since the ERM and ERL benchmarks indicated potential biological risk with these metals.

Effect of COVID-19 Lockdown on Metal Concentration in the Water Column of Asia’s Largest Coastal Lagoon

“…Our results suggest a similar phenomenon, where the COVID-19 induced lockdown has halted various industries and human activities and resulted in the reduction of various metals in the water samples of the Chilika lagoon. The Chilika lagoon has a high influence of the seasonal influx of freshwater during the monsoon season, which also brings a large quantity of dissolved organic materials, which can also influence the metal content in the water column (Panda et al, 2010;Sahu et al, 2014;Barik et al, 2018). This seasonal influx of materials and mixing with saline water also influences the physical parameters of the lagoon between the three sectors, which are evident in the results irrespective of the COVID-19 scenarios.…”

“…1). However, certain metals like Cr, Cu, Mn, and Pb were only 1-fold higher in the post-COVID-19 scenario than the pre-COVID-19, which suggests that these metals were incorporated into the water column through the natural, seasonal and biogeochemical processes of the system which remained the same, even during shutdown of industrial inputs (Barik et al, 2018;Nazneen et al, 2019).…”

“…Considering its ecological significance, the nodal agency for monitoring of this lagoon, i.e., Chilika Development Authority (CDA) and various other researchers have monitored the water quality of this lagoon (Panda et al, 2010;Ganguly et al, 2015;Barik et al, 2019;Nazneen et al, 2019;and references therein). Consequently, various other studies have also monitored the metal concentration in the sediment of this lagoon (Banerjee et al, 2017;Barik et al, 2018;Nayak et al, 2004;Nazneen et al, 2019 and references therein) and fishes and crab tissues (Nayak et al, 2015;Parida et al, 2017;Panda et al, 2019). However, there is a significant lack of information on the metal concentrations in the water column of this lagoon, considering the positive impact of both riverine freshwater influx and saline water from the Bay of Bengal (Panda et al, 2015;Sahu et al, 2014).…”

Quantifying Source Apportionment, Co‐occurrence, and Ecotoxicological Risk of Metals from Upstream, Lower Midstream, and Downstream River Segments, Bangladesh

“…The textural soil classes for various samples were measured by plotting the outcomes on a triangular diagram devised by Marshal (1947) followed by US Department of Agriculture classification (García‐Gaines and Frankenstein 2015). The pH of the sediment samples was measured using a standard pH meter (model PB‐10; Sartorius) in a mixture of sediment and deionized water in the ratio of 1:2.5 (w/v; Barik et al 2018; Habib et al 2019). The total organic carbon (TOC) content was estimated by the potassium dichromate oxidation method (Schumacher 2002).…”

“…Before analysis, sediment samples were air‐dried at room temperature (Barik et al 2018) for 7 d followed by oven drying at 80 °C for 24 h. The samples were then ground with a mortar and pestle until all particles could pass through a 106‐mm aperture nylon sieve (Barik et al 2018). Finally, the samples were collected in zip‐lock polythene bags until further analysis.…”