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An assessment of trace element contamination in intertidal sediment cores of Sunderban mangrove wetland, India for evaluating sediment quality guidelines

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Abstract

This paper presents a comprehensive account regarding concentration, distribution and possible sources of trace elements (Al, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) in 20–30 cm sediment cores (<63 μm particle size) collected at the confluence of the Ganges River and Bay of Bengal (Sunderban wetland, India). This work aims to evaluate the fluvio-marine and geochemical processes influencing the metal distribution. The most interesting features are the downward increase of concentrations of majority of the elements reaching overall maximum values at a depth of 10–15 cm observed in station Lot No.8 located along the main stream of the Ganges estuary as well as an overall elevated concentration of all the elements in the lower littoral zone. The interelemental relationship revealed the identical behaviour of elements during its transport in the estuarine environment. The overall variation in concentration can be attributed to differential discharge of effluents originating from industrial and agricultural as well as from domestic sewage. Arsenic exceeded effects range — low (ER — L) concentrations, implying occasional or frequent adverse biological effects. For Cu, Ni and Cr a smaller proportion of samples had exceeded the ER — L values indicating that the dataset would be suitable for future use in evaluating predictive abilities of SQGs.

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  1. Department of Marine Science, University of Calcutta, 35 B.C. Road, Calcutta, 700019, India

    Mousumi Chatterjee, Santosh Kumar Sarkar, Asok Kumar Bhattacharya, Bhaskar Deb Bhattacharya & Soumik Saha

  2. Analytical and Environmental Chemistry Section, Department of Chemistry and Industrial Chemistry, University of Genoa, via Dodecaneso 31, 16146, Genoa, Italy

    Serena Massolo

  3. Environmental and Industrial Safety Section, Safety Group, Indira Gandhi Center for Atomic Research, Kalpakkam, 603102, Tamil Nadu, India

    Kamala Kanta Satpathy

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  1. Mousumi Chatterjee
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  3. Santosh Kumar Sarkar
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Chatterjee, M., Massolo, S., Sarkar, S.K. et al. An assessment of trace element contamination in intertidal sediment cores of Sunderban mangrove wetland, India for evaluating sediment quality guidelines. Environ Monit Assess 150, 307–322 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-008-0232-7

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