Abstract
The arsenic-contaminated groundwater has attracted attention in much south and southeast Asian deltas, however, mainly on the deep aquifers. Here, arsenic (As) concentration and its fractionation of the sediment cores in a shallow aquifer in Bangladesh were investigated using ICP-MS, FE-EPMA, XRD and 14C-AMS chronology techniques. The results of the present study indicated that the peak concentrations of As (54.7–79.1 µg/g) were in peat layers (at a depth of 7.5–8.0 m). Several types of iron (oxyhidr)oxides and framboidal pyrite, which contain As also, were found in the peat samples. The high concentrations of As were in an exchangeable form, As-bearing iron crystalline and As-bearing organic materials. We revealed that the As-rich peat layers were formed from 3170 to 3901 cal yrs before, due to the sea level decrease in this area. The 16S rRNA gene-based phylogenetic analysis revealed that the bacterial strains in the As-rich peats were mainly affiliated with genera Acinetobacter, Enterobacter, Escherichia, Bacillus, Clostridiaceae and Acinetobacter. The geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and ecological risk index assessment were calculated for the sediments, which shows that As-rich sediment layers were in range of moderately to heavily contaminated and considerable classes, respectively. Under the permanent saturated condition, the As-rich peat layers should be considered as an important potential driver of the groundwater As in this area.
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Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr. Yasuhito Osanai, Dr. Tatsuro Adachi from Graduate School of Integrated Sciences for Global Society, Kyushu University for help with FE-EPMA analyses. We also thank Dr. Uddin Shamin from Asia Arsenic Network (AAN.) for support during the sampling campaign. Nguyen Van Thinh was funded by Japan society for promotion of science (JSPS) grant-in-aid No. 20F20090 and Wakaba challenge program (Qdai-jump research program, Kyushu University) during part of this study. We gratefully acknowledge the constructive criticism by the anonymous reviewers.
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TNV and KK designed the study; MM, TNV, MZ and YX conducted the biological analyses; YK performed the mineral analysis; AO contributed to data analysis; TNV conducted the chemical analysis and surface measurements, wrote the original manuscript draft. YK, KK and MM assisted to review the final version of the manuscript.
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Van Thinh, N., Matsumoto, M., Zaw, M. et al. Biogeochemical properties and potential risk of shallow arsenic-rich sediment layers to groundwater quality in Western Bangladesh. Environ Geochem Health 44, 3249–3263 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01087-7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-021-01087-7