Heavy metals contamination in sediments of Bharalu river, Guwahati, Assam, India: A tributary of river Brahmaputra

This study aimed to assess heavy metals in the surface sediments of the Bharalu river, India. Metal concentrations ranged from 6.65-54.6 mg/kg for Ni, 25.2-250.0 mg/kg for Zn, 83.3-139.1 mg/kg for Pb, and 11940.0-31250.0 mg/kg for Fe. The level of metal contamination was assessed using sediment qual...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	PloS one Vol. 18; no. 4; p. e0283665
Main Authors:	Bhuyan, Rajashree, Brahma, Pinki, Chabukdhara, Mayuri, Tyagi, Neha, Gupta, Sanjay Kumar, Malik, Tabarak
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	United States Public Library of Science 05-04-2023 Public Library of Science (PLoS)
Subjects:	Anthropogenic factors Aquatic ecosystems Biology and Life Sciences China Contamination Correlation analysis Damage prevention Data analysis Dumping Earth Sciences Ecology Ecology and Environmental Sciences Ecosystem Environmental Monitoring - methods Environmental risk Fluvial sediments Geologic Sediments - analysis Guidelines Health aspects Heavy metals India Iron Lead Lead - analysis Management methods Matrix methods Medicine and Health Sciences Metal concentrations Metals Metals, Heavy - analysis Physical Sciences Pollution Pollution index Pollution load Quality assessment Risk Risk Assessment River ecology River management River sediments Rivers Sediment load Sediment pollution Sediments Social Sciences Tributaries Water Pollutants, Chemical - analysis Water quality China India
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Summary:	This study aimed to assess heavy metals in the surface sediments of the Bharalu river, India. Metal concentrations ranged from 6.65-54.6 mg/kg for Ni, 25.2-250.0 mg/kg for Zn, 83.3-139.1 mg/kg for Pb, and 11940.0-31250.0 mg/kg for Fe. The level of metal contamination was assessed using sediment quality guidelines, geo-accumulation index (Igeo), enrichment factor (EF), pollution Load Index (PLI),Nemerow's pollution index (PIN), and potential ecological risk index. Pb exceeded the sediment quality guidelines at all sites indicating a potential threat to the river ecosystem. (Igeo) and EF also showed moderate to severe enrichment for Pb. Potential ecological risk (RI) showed low risk in the sediments, and Pb is the major contributor to ecological risk. Overall, pollution indices revealed comparably higher contamination of the sediments in the downstream sites than in the upstream site. PCA and correlation matrix analysis indicated both anthropogenic and natural origins for metals. Among anthropogenic sources, urban discharges and waste dumping could be mainly attributed to metal contamination in the river sediments. These findings may aid in developing future river management methods explicitly aimed at tackling heavy metal pollution to prevent further damage to the river ecosystem.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23 Competing Interests: The authors have no relevant financial or non-financial interests to disclose which is directly or indirectly related to the work submitted for publication.
ISSN:	1932-6203 1932-6203
DOI:	10.1371/journal.pone.0283665