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Atmospheric Deposition: An Important Determinant of Nutrients and Heavy Metal Levels in Urban Surface Runoff Reaching to the Ganga River

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Abstract

Excessive loading of water bodies with surface runoff-driven nutrients and heavy metals has become a serious concern worldwide. We investigated the surface runoff quality for nutrients and heavy metals being flushed to the Ganga River, as influenced by atmospheric deposition (AD). We selected three city sites in India, Haridwar, Varanasi, and Howrah, which differ widely with respect to population density and anthropogenic activities. We found distinct spatio-temporal trends in AD input of nutrients and heavy metal with values being highest in Varanasi region followed by Howrah and Haridwar. The runoff nutrients and metals showed strong synchrony with their respective levels in AD input. The concentrations were higher in the first flush. We found strong correlations (R2 = 0.83–0.93; p < 0.001) between AD metals and nutrients with their respective concentration in runoff. For all the studied metals, except Cd, the major proportions were in particulate form. The Cd was present in almost equal proportions in particulate and dissolved fractions. Metals in runoff were found in order as: Zn > Pb > Cu > Ni > Cr > Cd. In general, the concentrations of metals were higher than those reported in other studies. The contamination factor and geo-accumulation index show that the Cd was a major pollutant in the runoff. The pollution load index (PLI) indicates that all three sites are highly polluted. Our study indicates that there is a need to reduce particulate loads. Furthermore, because of the high concentrations of pollutants in the first flush, strategies may be developed to enhance the efficiency of treatment of the first flush of runoff.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Coordinators, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany and DST-FIST, Banaras Hindu University for facilities and Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi (Grant No. 09/013(0611)/2015-EMR-I) for funding support. The authors also are grateful to the Board of Editors, reviewers, and Dr. J. G. Maphanyane for suggestions to improve the paper.

Funding

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi (Grant No. 09/013(0611)/2015-EMR-I) as a fellowship grant to ES.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Ganga River Ecology Research Laboratory, Environmental Science Division, Centre of Advanced Study in Botany, Institute of Science, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Ekabal Siddiqui & Jitendra Pandey

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  1. Ekabal Siddiqui
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  2. Jitendra Pandey
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Jitendra Pandey conceptualized the research problem, constructed the experimental design, reviewed and edited the MS and provided the overall supervision. Ekabal Siddiqui conducted sampling, formal analyses, contributed to the original draft, and funding acquisition.

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Correspondence to Jitendra Pandey.

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Siddiqui, E., Pandey, J. Atmospheric Deposition: An Important Determinant of Nutrients and Heavy Metal Levels in Urban Surface Runoff Reaching to the Ganga River. Arch Environ Contam Toxicol 82, 191–205 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00244-021-00820-8

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