Abstract
Ashtamudi estuary, situated on the southwest coast of India, is enormously affected by anthropogenic interventions. Physicochemical quality of water and sedimentological features of the estuary are evaluated during monsoon and nonmonsoon seasons to elucidate its quality variations and to link the same with existing environmental scenario. The whole data has been factorized using principal component analysis for extracting the total variability and linear relationships existing among a set of different physicochemical parameters of the backwater system. In PCA, high loadings were obtained for conductivity, salinity, fluoride, calcium, magnesium, sulfate, boron, and pH. The results were revealed that all the physicochemical processes depend upon seasonal fluctuation of freshwater input and seawater intrusion. Wide spatial concentration fluctuations of organic carbon and iron in bottom sediment have been noticed and both constituents reveal good correlation with sediment texture. The results showed high deterioration of the physicochemical quality of water during nonmonsoon season with respect to monsoon season.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
APHA (1995). Standard methods for the examination of water and wastewater (19th ed.). Washington, DC: American Public Health Association.
Babu, K. N. (1993). Distribution of heavy metals and organic carbon in sediments of Ashtamudi estuary, Kerala (pp. 62–65). Proceedings of Fifth Kerala Science Congress.
Babu, K. N., Ouseph, P. P., & Padmalal, D. (2000). Interstitial water–sediment geochemistry of N, P and Fe and its response to overlying waters of tropical estuaries: a case from the south west coast of India. Environmental Geology, 39(6), 633–640. doi:10.1007/s002540050475.
Barbieri, P., Adami, G., Predonzani, S., Reisenhofer, E., & Massart, D. L. (1999). Survey of environmental complex systems: pattern recognition of physicochemical data describing coastal water quality in the Gulf of Trieste. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 1, 69–74. doi:10.1039/a807528j.
Buzelli, C., Akman, O., Buck, T., Koepfler, E., Morris, J., & Lewitus, A. (2004). Relationships among water quality parameters from the north inlet-Winyah bay national estuarine research reserve, South Carolina. Journal of Coastal Research, 45, 59–74.
Folk, R. L. (1974). Petrology of sedimentary rocks. Austin, TX: Hemphill, 182 p.
Grasshoff, K., Enrhardt, M., & Krenling, K. (1983). Methods of sea water analysis. Weinheim: Verlag Chemie.
Hopkinson, C. S., & Vallino, J. J. (1995). The relationships among man’s activities in watersheds and estuaries: a model of runoff effects on patterns of estuarine community metabolism. Estuaries, 18, 598–621. doi:10.2307/1352380.
Iyer, C. S. P., Sindhu, M., Kulkarni, S. G., Tambe, S. S., & Kulkarni, B. D. (2003). Statistical analysis of the physico-chemical data on the coastal waters of Cochin. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 5, 1–5. doi:10.1039/b209219k.
Kowalkowski, T., Zbytniewski, R., Szpejna, J., & Buszewski, B. (2006). Application of chemometrics in river water classification. Water Research, 40, 744–752. doi:10.1016/j.watres.2005.11.042.
Madramootoo, C. A., Johnston, W. R., & Willardson, L. S. (1997). Management of agricultural drainage water quality. Water Reports 13.
Mahloch, J. L. (1974). Civil Eng.100. Envir. Eng. Div. Amer. Soc. EE5, 119–1132.
Maiti, S. K. (2003). Handbook of methods in environmental studies, vol. 2: air, noise, soil and overburden analysis. Jaipur: ABD.
Mazlum, N., Ozer, A., & Mazlum, S. (1999). Interpretation of water quality data by principal component analysis. Turkish Journal of Engineering and Environmental Science, 23, 19–26.
Nair, N. B., Aziz, P. K., Dharmaraj, K., Arunachalam, M., Krishnakumar, K., & Balasubramanian, N. K. (1993). Ecology of Indian estuaries: Part I—physico-chemical features of water and sediment nutrients of Ashtamudi estuary. Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, 12, 143–150.
Narvekar, P. V., & Zingde, M. D. (1987). Behaviour of boron, calcium, and magnesium in Purna and Auranga estuaries (Gujarat), West coast of India. Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, 16, 46–50.
Perez, G., & Valiente, M. (2005). Determination of pollution trends in an abandoned mining site by application of a multivariate statistical analysis to heavy metals fractionation using SM &T-SES. Journal of Environmental Monitoring, 7, 29–32. doi:10.1039/b411316k.
Philips, E. J., Love, N., Badylak, S., Hansen, P., Lockwood, J., John, C. V., et al. (2004). A Comparison of water quality and hydrodynamic characteristics of the Guana Tolomato Matanzas national estuarine research reserve and the Indian River Lagoon of Florida. Journal of Coastal Research, 45, 93–109.
Reddy, C. V. G., & Sankaranarayanan, V. N. (1972). Phosphate regenerative activity in the muds of tropical estuary. Indian Journal of Marine Sciences, 1, 57–60.
Shrestha, S., & Kazama, F. (2007). Assessment of surface water quality using multivariate statistical techniques: A case study of the Fuji River basin, Japan. Environmental Modelling & Software, 22, 464–475. doi:10.1016/j.envsoft.2006.02.001.
Singh, K. P., Malik, A., & Sinha, S. (2005). Water quality assessment and apportionment of pollution sources of Gomti River (India) using multivariate statistical techniques—a case study. Analytica Chimica Acta, 538, 355–374. doi:10.1016/j.aca.2005.02.006.
SPSS Inc. (1995). SPSS for windows, release 6.1.2.
Varol, M., & Sen, B. (in press). Assessment of surface water quality using multivariate statistical techniques: a case study of Behrimaz Stream, Turkey. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment. doi:10.1007/s10661-008-0650-6.
Vega, M., Pardo, R., Barrado, E., & Deban, L. (1998). Assessment of seasonal and polluting effects on the quality of river water by exploratory data analysis. Water Research, 32, 3581–3592. doi:10.1016/S0043-1354(98)00138-9.
Zhang, Y., Guo, F., Meng, W., & Wang, X.-Q. (2008). Water quality assessment and source identification of Daliao River basin using multivariate statistical methods. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 152, 105–121. doi:10.1007/s10661-008-0300-z.
Zhou, F., Liu, Y., & Guo, H. C. (2007). Application of multivariate statistical methods to the water quality assessment of the watercourses in the northwestern New Territories, Hong Kong. Environmental Monitoring and Assessment, 132(1–3), 1–13. doi:10.1007/s10661-006-9497-x.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Babu, K.N., Omana, P.K. & Mohan, M. Water and sediment quality of Ashtamudi estuary, a Ramsar site, southwest coast of India—a statistical appraisal. Environ Monit Assess 165, 307–319 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-009-0947-0
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-009-0947-0