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Selected organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in surface soils from three major states from the northeastern part of India

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Abstract

Eighty-two surface soil samples were collected from forest, grassland, tea estate, wildlife sanctuary, wetland, and roadside areas from the northeastern states of India, viz., Tripura, Manipur, and Assam. Thirteen different organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) were detected from background soils using gas chromatography electron capture detector. Manipur soils were found to be with higher concentration of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (DDTs), hexachlorocyclohexanes (HCHs), and endosulfan followed by Tripura and Assam. The spearman correlation coefficient shows significant correlation between HCHs, DDTs, and endosulfan isomers (r 2 > 0.5 and p < 0.05). Additionally, α-HCH, δ-HCH, o,p′-DDE, and endosulfan-sulfate shows good correlation with total organic carbon in soil (r 2 = 0.5, p = 0.05), indicating that the soil organic matter could enhance adsorption of these compounds, also demonstrating that the present OCPs in the background soil were from similar source. Further principal component analysis evaluates that most of the higher volatile compounds where clustered together in soil. However, after comparing with different states of Indian soil samples, the concentrations of OCPs in the present study areas are much lower and comparable with background soil across the globe.

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Acknowledgments

NL Devi acknowledge the Government of India and Government of China for providing the financial support to this research work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. State key Laboratory of Biogeology and Environmental Geology, School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, 388, Lumo Road, Wuhan, 430074, China

    Ningombam Linthoingambi Devi & Qi Shihua

  2. Department of Soil Science and Agricultural Chemistry, Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, 221005, India

    Ningombam Linthoingambi Devi

  3. State key Laboratory of Organic Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Paromita Chakraborty & Gan Zhang

  4. SRM Research Institute, SRM University, Kattankulathur, Tamil Nadu, India

    Paromita Chakraborty

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  1. Ningombam Linthoingambi Devi
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  2. Paromita Chakraborty
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  3. Qi Shihua
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  4. Gan Zhang
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Correspondence to Qi Shihua.

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Devi, N.L., Chakraborty, P., Shihua, Q. et al. Selected organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in surface soils from three major states from the northeastern part of India. Environ Monit Assess 185, 6667–6676 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-3055-5

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