Abstract
This study evaluated the relationships between metal pollution and carbon production at six sites along a 285 km length of the Ganga River. Metal contaminated sites did show a significant reduction in microbial biomass, substrate induced respiration, fluorescein diacetate hydrolytic assay (FDAase) and β-d-glucosidase. Concordantly, despite a high concentration of total organic carbon at these sites, CO2 emission at the land–water interface remained low. We found a strong positive correlation between CO2 emission and TOC (r = 0.92; p < 0.001). However, this relationship weakens when the sum of total heavy metal (∑THM) exceed 400 µg g−1. Also, CO2 emission did show a positive correlation (r = 0.85; p < 0.001) with FDAase. The study shows that metal accumulation in riverbed sediment could potentially lead to better carbon sequestration on account of reduced microbial/enzyme activities. This carries significance for riverine carbon budget and modeling.
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Acknowledgements
This research was funded by National Academy of Science (India) (NAS/2012/2/2015-16) as a fellowship to KV and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi (09/013(0611)/2015-EMR-I) as a Fellowship to ES. The authors thank Co-ordinators CAS and DST-FIST, Banaras Hindu University for facilities.
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Verma, K., Pandey, J. & Siddiqui, E. Heavy Metal Pollution in the Ganga River Enhances Carbon Storage Relative to Flux. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 104, 41–48 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-019-02761-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-019-02761-4