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Geochemical behaviour of dissolved trace elements in a monsoon-dominated tropical river basin, Southwestern India

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Abstract

The study presents a 3-year time series data on dissolved trace elements and rare earth elements (REEs) in a monsoon-dominated river basin, the Nethravati River in tropical Southwestern India. The river basin lies on the metamorphic transition boundary which separates the Peninsular Gneiss and Southern Granulitic province belonging to Archean and Tertiary–Quaternary period (Western Dharwar Craton). The basin lithology is mainly composed of granite gneiss, charnockite and metasediment. This study highlights the importance of time series data for better estimation of metal fluxes and to understand the geochemical behaviour of metals in a river basin. The dissolved trace elements show seasonality in the river water metal concentrations forming two distinct groups of metals. First group is composed of heavy metals and minor elements that show higher concentrations during dry season and lesser concentrations during the monsoon season. Second group is composed of metals belonging to lanthanides and actinides with higher concentration in the monsoon and lower concentrations during the dry season. Although the metal concentration of both the groups appears to be controlled by the discharge, there are important biogeochemical processes affecting their concentration. This includes redox reactions (for Fe, Mn, As, Mo, Ba and Ce) and pH-mediated adsorption/desorption reactions (for Ni, Co, Cr, Cu and REEs). The abundance of Fe and Mn oxyhydroxides as a result of redox processes could be driving the geochemical redistribution of metals in the river water. There is a Ce anomaly (Ce/Ce*) at different time periods, both negative and positive, in case of dissolved phase, whereas there is positive anomaly in the particulate and bed sediments. The Ce anomaly correlates with the variations in the dissolved oxygen indicating the redistribution of Ce between particulate and dissolved phase under acidic to neutral pH and lower concentrations of dissolved organic carbon. Unlike other tropical and major world rivers, the effect of organic complexation on metal variability is negligible in the Nethravati River water.

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Acknowledgments

This work is funded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests (19/36/2006-RE), Government of India, through a research project to KB. INSU-EC2CO (CNRS) and IRD, France are also thanked for partially funding this research work. We thank all technical staff at GET, Toulouse for their help during the analysis of samples. The first author (GPG) is thankful to the Embassy of France in India and the International Association of Geochemistry for providing Sandwich Ph.D. fellowship to do a part of this work at GET, Toulouse, France and for providing Ph.D. Student Research Grant, respectively. This work is part of GPG’s Ph D thesis submitted to Manipal University, Manipal and the work is carried out at Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University, Manipal, India.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Manipal Centre for Natural Sciences, Manipal University, Manipal, 576104, India

    G. P. Gurumurthy

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal University, Manipal, 576104, India

    K. Balakrishna, M. Tripti & H. N. Udaya Shankar

  3. GET UMR 5563, Université Paul Sabatier, IRD and CNRS, 14, avenue E. Belin, 31400, Toulouse, France

    Stéphane Audry, Jean Riotte & J. J. Braun

  4. Indo-French Cell for Water Sciences, Joint IRD-IISc Laboratory, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, 560012, India

    Jean Riotte & J. J. Braun

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  1. G. P. Gurumurthy
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  2. K. Balakrishna
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  3. M. Tripti
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  4. Stéphane Audry
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Correspondence to K. Balakrishna.

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Gurumurthy, G.P., Balakrishna, K., Tripti, M. et al. Geochemical behaviour of dissolved trace elements in a monsoon-dominated tropical river basin, Southwestern India. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 5098–5120 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-2462-7

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