Massive land system changes impact water quality of the Jhelum River in Kashmir Himalaya

The pristine aquatic ecosystems in the Himalayas are facing an ever increasing threat from various anthropogenic pressures which necessitate better understanding of the spatial and temporal variability of pollutants, their sources, and possible remedies. This study demonstrates the multi-disciplinar...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Environmental monitoring and assessment Vol. 188; no. 3; p. 185
Main Authors:	Rather, Mohmmad Irshad, Rashid, Irfan, Shahi, Nuzhat, Murtaza, Khalid Omar, Hassan, Khalida, Yousuf, Abdul Rehman, Romshoo, Shakil Ahmad, Shah, Irfan Yousuf
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Cham Springer International Publishing 01-03-2016 Springer Nature B.V
Subjects:	Agricultural land Agriculture - trends analysis of variance Anthropogenic factors Aquatic ecosystems Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution Cluster Analysis cropland Earth and Environmental Science Ecology Ecosystem Ecotoxicology electrical conductivity Environment Environmental Management Environmental Monitoring Factor analysis Factor Analysis, Statistical farming systems Fertilizer application Fertilizers forests Intensive farming Land degradation Land use Monitoring/Environmental Analysis nitrate nitrogen Nitrogen Nitrogen - analysis Nonpoint source pollution orchards people Pesticides phosphorus Phosphorus - analysis Pollutants Pollution Pollution sources Remote sensing River ecology Rivers Rivers - chemistry shrublands Snow temporal variation Tourism Urbanization Urbanization - trends variance Variance analysis Water pollution Water Pollution - statistics & numerical data Water Quality Himalayan region India Jhelum River Land system changes Water quality monitoring Himalaya Spatio-temporal variations
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Summary:	The pristine aquatic ecosystems in the Himalayas are facing an ever increasing threat from various anthropogenic pressures which necessitate better understanding of the spatial and temporal variability of pollutants, their sources, and possible remedies. This study demonstrates the multi-disciplinary approach utilizing the multivariate statistical techniques, data from remote sensing, lab, and field-based observations for assessing the impact of massive land system changes on water quality of the river Jhelum. Land system changes over a period of 38 years have been quantified using multi-spectral satellite data to delineate the extent of different anthropogenically driven land use types that are the main non-point sources of pollution. Fifteen water quality parameters, at 12 sampling sites distributed uniformly along the length of the Jhelum, have been assessed to identify the possible sources of pollution. Our analysis indicated that 18 % of the forested area has degraded into sparse forest or scrublands from 1972 to 2010, and the areas under croplands have decreased by 24 % as people shifted from irrigation-intensive agriculture to orchard farming while as settlements showed a 397 % increase during the observation period. One-way ANOVA revealed that all the water quality parameters had significant spatio-temporal differences (p < 0.01). Cluster analysis (CA) helped us to classify all the sampling sites into three groups. Factor analysis revealed that 91.84 % of the total variance was mainly explained by five factors. Drastic changes in water quality of the Jhelum since the past three decades are manifested by increases in nitrate-nitrogen, TDS, and electric conductivity. The especially high levels of nitrogen (858 ± 405 μgL⁻¹) and phosphorus (273 ± 18 μgL⁻¹) in the Jhelum could be attributed to the reckless application of fertilizers, pesticides, and unplanned urbanization in the area.
Bibliography:	http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-016-5190-x ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0167-6369 1573-2959
DOI:	10.1007/s10661-016-5190-x