Assessment of Trace Element Distribution in Red-bloom (E. shafiqii) and Water of Dal Lake, Kashmir Valley, by Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence Spectrometry

Abstract

Dal Lake is located in Srinagar in the Jammu and Kashmir State of India. It is one of the foremost tourist attractions in the Himalayan valley as well as a lifeline for the local population. It provides fish, aquatic vegetables and drinking water. It has been plagued for the last 20 years by a thin red film during the period of June-August, when the tourist influx is at its peak. This phenomenon is attributed to a rare Euglena species Euglena shafiqii (Shafiq-ur-Rehman, 1998), which is now recognized and listed by the International Water Environment Renovation Research Team, Japan and the Society of Protozoologists. The lake frequently receives large quantities of wastes from the surrounding human settlements, hotels, and runoff from agricultural and Dachigam sanctuary catchment lands/area. All these activities make lake pollution prone. Our earlier observations have shown presence of some heavy metals in significant amount in the red-bloomed waters of the lake (Shafiq-ur-Rehman, 2009). The raised concentrations of heavy metals in lakes have also been reported from different parts of the world (Yalcin and Sevinc, 2001; Szymannowska et al., 1999; Elmaci, 2007). There are many spectrophotochemical techniques based on a range of physical principles encompassing the spectral range from Infrared to the X-Ray region (Wobrauschek, 1998). In the case when X-rays are used for elemental analysis their energy can range from 110 eV to about 130 keV (Be to Bk). Total Reflection X-ray Fluorescence (TXRF) is an upcoming trace elemental analysis technique having several advanced analytical features (Klockenkaemper and von Bohlen, 2001). Moreover, TXRF holds several analytical advantages of non-destruction and versatility of sample, capability to analyze multi-elements, and is less time consuming. It has comparatively high detection limits due to high background reduction produced by the absorption and scattering of X-ray beam by the sample and matrix (Misra and Mudher, 2002). In the present study TXRF was applied to determine the concentration of trace elements present in Dal Lake water besides the red-bloom Euglena shafiqii which appears in the lake in certain months of the year.