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Seasonal Variations of Heavy Metals in the Soil Around a Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plant, South-West Coast of India

Bulletin of Environmental Contamination and Toxicology volume 104, pages 602–608 (2020)Cite this article

Abstract

This study focuses on seasonal variations of heavy metals in the soil around a coal fired thermal power plant in Udupi district, which is a densely populated town in the tropical southwest coast of India. This study, pertaining to 48 soil samples, collected during the pre-monsoon, early-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon seasons for one year, reveals that the chemistry of collected soil samples is influenced by non-pedogenic (anthropogenic) sources such as fly-ash deposition from the thermal power plant and vehicular emissions. This was concluded based on grouping of similar behaved elements through correlation–regression analysis. The distance-wise distribution of heavy metals and backward wind-trajectory analysis suggests that pre-monsoon and post-monsoonal samples are more influenced by anthropogenic activities compared to rest of the seasons. This is supported by high concentration of Zn in pre-monsoon (25.21 mg/kg) and post-monsoon (21.32 mg/kg) seasons compared to early-monsoon (17.05 mg/kg) and monsoon (8.60 mg/kg) seasons.

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Acknowledgement

Dr TMA Pai Endowment Chair-Earth Sciences and post-doctoral research grant (to KB) is thanked for the logistical support.

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Affiliations

  1. International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, 150090, Heilongjinag, China

    Minal Milind Gune, Wan-Li Ma, Zifeng Zhang & Yi-Fan Li

  2. Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal Academy of Higher Education, Manipal, 576104, India

    Minal Milind Gune, Keshava Balakrishna & Harikripa Narayana Udayashankar

  3. Department of Civil Engineering, Manipal University Jaipur, Jaipur, 303007, India

    Bombay Ganesh Harshavardhana

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  1. Minal Milind Gune
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  2. Bombay Ganesh Harshavardhana
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  3. Wan-Li Ma
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  4. Keshava Balakrishna
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  5. Harikripa Narayana Udayashankar
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  6. Zifeng Zhang
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  7. Yi-Fan Li
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Correspondence to Keshava Balakrishna.

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Gune, M.M., Harshavardhana, B.G., Ma, WL. et al. Seasonal Variations of Heavy Metals in the Soil Around a Coal-Fired Thermal Power Plant, South-West Coast of India. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 104, 602–608 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-020-02831-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-020-02831-y

Keywords

  • Soil pollution
  • Heavy metals
  • Tropical regions
  • Thermal power plant
  • Udupi Power Corporation Limited (UPCL) India