Abstract
Twenty-nine shelf sediment samples have been collected from the Southwestern part of the Bay of Bengal in 5 transects lying offshore between the coasts of Cuddalore and Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu, India. Collected samples were analyzed for sediment texture, organic matter (OM), and trace metals (Fe, Cu, Co, Mn, Pb, Zn, Cr, and Ni). Sandy fractions were found to be abundant in all transects except transect 3, because of the existence of the Pichavaram estuary fed by river Vellar in the north and Coleroon in the south. Among all the trace metals, Fe is the most abundant in the sediment samples. And metals such as Co, Pb, Cr and Ni are higher than the average background values, suggesting adverse effects of human activities in polluting the marine environment. The pollution indices viz. Enrichment Factor (EF), Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo), and Contamination Factor (CF) were calculated to assess trace metal pollution. The results imply that Cu, Co, Mn, Pb, Zn, Cr, and Ni in most of the sampling sites are highly contaminated in terms of Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo). Pb, Zn and Cr are heavily contaminated, while Cu, Mn, Ni, and Co showed moderate contamination, as demonstrated by the CF values. Pearson correlation and principal component analysis (PCA), explain the combination of geogenic and anthropogenic sources contributing trace metals to the marine system.
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Acknowledgement
We wholeheartedly thank the University Grants Commission (UGC), New Delhi, for financially supporting this work. In addition, we extend our sincere gratitude to Central Instrumentation Facility and the laboratory facilities at Pondicherry University. We would like to also thank the National Institute of Ocean Technology (Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India) for their valuable support in collecting samples, especially to Mr. D. Rajasekhar (Head of Vessel Management Cell), Mr. K. Ramasundaram (Scientific Officer II), Mr. Thiruvathi Babu and Mr. Mohan Raj. Special thanks to Mr. Harikrishnan P.R., Research Scholar, Dept. of Earth sciences, Pondicherry University for helping me with Arc GIS software.
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Sadanandan, H., Dharmalingam, S.N., Sridharan, M. et al. Assessment of Trace Metal Pollution in Surface Sediments from Southwestern Part of Bay of Bengal, India. J Geol Soc India 99, 383–389 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-023-2321-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-023-2321-1