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Environmental analysis of heavy metal deposition in a flow-restricted tropical estuary and its adjacent shelf

DRS at CSIR-National Institute of Oceanography

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Title Environmental analysis of heavy metal deposition in a flow-restricted tropical estuary and its adjacent shelf
 
Creator Balachandran, K.K.
Laluraj, C.M.
Martin, G.D.
Srinivas, K.
Venugopal, P.
 
Subject Tropical estuary
Statistical methods
Heavy metals
organic and inorganic association
 
Description The geochemical condition of surface sediments in a tropical estuary and adjoining shelf region is presented for their elemental interactions using statistical methods. Principal component analysis separated two clusters comprising of (i) heavy metals possessing significant correlation with texture (organic carbon, clay and silt), which belong to sediments in the shelf region and (ii) heavy metals in high concentration showing poor correlation with sediment texture, which are of estuarine origin. Co-precipitation of iron hydroxide along with scavenging of other metals could be the principal mechanism explaining the accumulation of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in the estuarine sediments. Discharge of industrial effluents has lead to the present level of metal contamination in the estuary. There is an associated hazard because in this state the metals released during mineralization could be available to biota. The increased anthropogenic influence in the Cochin Estuary has probably resulted in a reduction in benthic biodiversity, where pollutant-tolerant species are found to take over the vacated niche. In contrast, the coastal environment is controlled by natural oceanographic processes, where the coastal currents and stable biogenic association normalize metal deposition. The source apportionment of metals by inorganic and bio-mediated interactions helps illuminate the processes controlling their depositional trends in pristine and impacted environments.
 
Date 2007-04-18T07:39:36Z
2007-04-18T07:39:36Z
2006
 
Type Journal Article
 
Identifier Environmental Forensics, vol.7(4), 345–351p.
http://drs.nio.org/drs/handle/2264/598
 
Language en
 
Rights This is a preprint of an article whose final and definitive form has been published in the [Environmental Forensics] © [2006] [copyright Taylor & Francis]; [Environmental Forensics} is available online at: http://www.informaworld.com/ with the open URL
 
Format 87881 bytes
application/pdf
 
Publisher Taylor & Francis