Abstract
Mercury concentrations (HgT) in fine-grained fraction (<63 μm) of core sediments of the Hugli–Matla–Bidyadhari estuarine complex, India were analyzed. Results revealed a wide range of spatial variations (<4–93 ng g−1 dry weight) with a definite enhancement level at the lower stretch of the estuarine complex infested with mangrove plants, which might act as a sink to HgT. An elevated concentration of Hg was encountered in surface/subsurface layer of the core in majority of the cases resulting from physical, biogenic and postdepositional diagenetic processes that remobilized and resuspended the metal from deeper sediments. A strong positive correlation was observed between the Hg and clay fraction content of the sediments, while the correlations of Hg with Al, Fe and Mn were poor. Based on the index of geoaccumulation (I geo) and effects range-low (ER-L) value, it is considered that the sediments are less polluted and thus there is less chance of ecotoxicological risk to organisms living in sediments.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Barnabé G, Barnabé-Quet R (2002) Ecology and management of coastal waters: the aquatic environment. Springer, Berlin
Beiras R, Fernandez N, Gonzalez JJ, Besada V, Schultz F (2002) Mercury concentrations in sea water, sediments and wild mussels from the coast of Galicia (NW Spain). Mar Pollut Bull 44:340–349
Birkett JW, Noreng JMK, Lester JN (2002) Spatial distribution of mercury in sediments and riparian environment of River Yare, Norfolk, U. K. Environ Pollut 116:65–74
Bhattacharya A (1988) Intertidal depositional characters in the Hoogly tidal islands, West Bengal. Indian J Geol 60:153–164
Bhattacharya A (2002) The role of macrofauna in the bioturbation processes around the mangrove zones of the Sunderban Biosphere Reserve and its impact on environment management. In: Sharama JK, Esa PS, Mohan C, Sashidharan N (eds) Biosphere reserves in India and their management. Ministry of Environment and Forests, G.O.·I, New Delhi, pp 166–180
Bhattacharya A, Sarkar SK (2003) Impact of over exploitation of shellfish: northeastern coast of India. Ambio 32(1):70–75
Bothner M, Jahnke R, Peterson M, Carpenter R (1980) Rate of mercury loss from contaminated estuarine sediments. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 44:273–285
Canario J, Vale C, Caetano M, Madureira MJ (2003) Mercury in contaminated sediments and pore waters enriched in sulphate (Tagus Estuary, Portugal). Environ Pollut 126:425–433
Canario J, Vale C, Caetano M (2005) Distribution of monomethylmercury and mercury in surface sediments of the Tagus Estuary (Portugal). Mar Pollut Bull 50:1121–1145
Carreón-Martínez LB, Huerta-Diaz MA, Nava-Lopez C, Siqueiros-Valencia A (2002) Levels of reactive mercury and silver in sediments from the Port of Ensenada. Baja California, Mexico. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 68:138–147
Chatterjee M, Silva Filho EV, Sarkar SK, Sella SM, Bhattacharya A, Satpathy KK, Prasad MVR, Chakraborty S, Bhattacharya BD (2007) Distribution and possible source of trace elements in the sediment cores of a tropical macrotidal estuary and their ecotoxicological significance. Environ Int 33:346–356
Cossa D (1995) Poissons au mercure: Une spécialite redoubtable. Recherche 277:688–689
Costley T, Mossop KF, Dean JR, Garden LM, Marshall J, Carroll J (2000) Determination of mercury in environmental and biological samples using pyrolysis atomic absorption spectrometry. Atom Absorp Newsl 14:117–120
Cundy AB, Croudace IW, Thomson J, Lewis JT (1997) Reliability of salt marshes as ‘Geochemical Recorders’ of pollution input: a case study from contrasting estuaries in southern England. Environ Sci Technol 31:1093–1101
Din ZB (1992) Use of aluminium to normalize heavy-metal data from estuarine and coastal sediments of Straits of Melaka. Mar Pollut Bull 24:484–491
Elliot M, Griffiths AH (1986) Mercury contamination in components of an estuarine ecosystem. Water Sci Technol 18:161–170
Farrah H, Pickering WF (1978) The sorption of mercury species by clay minerals. Water Air Soil Pollut 9:23–31
Folk RL, Ward WC (1957) Brazos River bar, a study of the significance of grain size parameters. J Sediment Petrol 27:3–26
Frontier S, Pichod-Viale D (1991) Ecosystemes: Structure, Fonctionnement, évolution. Masson Ēd, Paris
Garcia-Rico L, Rodriguez MV, Jara-Marini ME (2006) Geochemistry of mercury in sediment of oyster areas in Sonora, Mexico. Mar Pollut Bull 52:447–469
Ghosh SK, Mahapatra B, De TK, Choudhury A, Jana TK (1992) Calcite and aragonite in the Hugli estuary (Bay of Bengal). Indian J Mar Sci 21:207–209
Goodbred SL (2003) Response of the Ganges dispersal system to climate change: a source-to-sink view since the last interstade. Sediment Geol 162:83–104
Hylander LD (2001) Global mercury pollution and its expected decrease after a mercury trade ban. Water Air Soil Pollut 125:331–344
Ikem A, Egiebor NO (2005) Assessment of trace elements in canned fishes (mackerel, tuna, salmon, sardines and herrings) marketed in Georgia and Alabama (United States of America). J Food Compost Anal 18:771–787
Jackson TA (1998) In: Metal metabolism in aquatic environment. Langstron WJ, Bebianno MJ (eds) Chapman & Hall Ltd Publishers, London pp 77–138
Jenne EA (1968) Controls of Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu and Zn concentrations in soils and water: the significant role of hydrous Mn and Fe oxides. In: Gould RF (ed) Trace inorganics in water. Advanc Chem Ser 73. Am Chem Soc, Washington pp 337–387
Krumbein WC, Pettijohn FJ (1938) Manual of sedimentary petrology. Plenum, New York, p 549
Lacerda LD, Silva LFF, Marins RV, Mounier S, Paraquetti HHM, Benaim J (2001) Dissolved mercury concentrations and reactivity in mangrove waters from the Itacurussa Experimental Forest, Sepetiba Bay, SE Brazil. Wetl Ecol Manag 9:323–331
Liao JF(1990) The chemical properties of the mangrove Solonchak in the northeast part of Hainan Island. Acta Scient Nat Univ Sunyatseni 9(Supp 4): 67–72
Long ER, Morgan LG (1991) Biopoential for biological effects of sediment-sorbed contaminants tested in the national status and trends programm. Office of Coastal and Estuarine Assessment, Seattle
McAloon KM, Mason RP (2003) Investigations into the bioavailability and bioaccumulation of mercury and other trace metals to the sea cucumber, Sclerodactyla briareus, using in vitro solubilization. Mar Pollut Bull 46:1600–1608
Marins RV, Lacarda LD, Paraquetti HHM, de Paiva EC, Villas Boas RC (1998) Geochemistry of mercury in sediments of a subtropical coastal lagoon, Sepetiba Bay, southeastern Brazil. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 61:57–64
Mitra S (1986) Mercury in the ecosystem. Transtech Publications, Uetikon-Zurich, pp 1–327
Muller G (1979) Schermetalle in den sedimenten des Rheins-Veran-derungen seitt, 1971. Umschan 79:778–783
Nolting RF, Ramkema A, Everaarts JM (1999) The geochemistry of Cu, Cd, Zn, Ni and Pb in sediment cores from the continental slope of Banc d’ Arquin (Mauritani). Contin Shelf Res 19:665–691
Panda D (1993) Texture mineralogy and chemical composition of Chilka Lake sediments. Ph. D. Thesis, Berhampur University, Berhampur, India, unpublished
Panda UC, Sahu KC, Mahapatra DM, Das CR (1999) Bulk and partition analysis of heavy metals in sediments of Bahuda estuary, east coast of India. Indian J Mar Sci 28:102–105
Pereira ME, Duarte AC, Millward GE, Abreu S, Vale C (1998) An estimation of industrial mercury stored in sediments of a confined area of the lagoon of Aveiro (Portugal). Water Sci Technol 36(6–7):125–130
Ram A, Rokade MA, Borole DV, Zingde MD (2003) Mercury in sediments of Ulhas estuary. Mar Pollut Bull 46:846–857
Rantala RTT, Loring DH (1975) Multi-element analysis of silicate rocks and marine sediments by atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Atom Absorp Newsl 14:117–120
Ramalhosa E, Segade SR, Pereira E, Vale C, Duarte A (2006) Mercury cycling between the water column and surface sediments in a contaminated area. Water Res 40:2893–2900
Riget F, Dietz R, Born EW, Sonne C, Hobson KA (2007) Temporal trends of mercury in marine biota of west and northwest Greenland. Mar Pollut Bull 54:72–80
Rasmunssen PE (1994) Current methods of estimating atmospheric mercury fluxes in remote areas. Environ Sci Technol 28:2233–2241
Sahu KC, Panda UC, Mahapatra DM (1998) Geochemistry and mineralogy of sediments in Rushikulya estuary, east coast of India. Chem Environ Res 7(1/2):77–92
Sarkar SK, Singh BN, Choudhury A (1985) The ecology of chaetognaths in the Hugli Estuary, West Bengal, India. Indian J Mar Sci 14:98–101
Sarkar SK, Franciscovic-Bilinski S, Bhattacharya A, Saha M, Bilinski H (2004) Levels of elements in the surficial estuarine sediments of the Hugli river, northeast India and their environmental implications. Environ Int 30:1089–1098
Sarkar SK, Saha M, Takada H, Bhattacharya A, Mishra P, Bhattacharya B (2007) Water quality management in the lower stretch of the river Ganges, east coast of India: an approach through environmental education. J Clean Prod 15(16):1559–1567
Silva LFF, Machado W, Lisboafilho SD, Lacerda LD (2003) Mercury accumulation in sediments of a mangrove ecosystem in SE Brazil. Water Air Soil Pollut 145:67–77
Turkian KK, Wedephol KH (1961) Distribution of the elements in some major units of the earth crust. Bull Geol Soc Am 72:175–192
Valette-Silver HJ (1993) The use of sediment cores to reconstruct historical trends in contamination of estuarine and coastal sediments. Estuaries 16(3B):577–588
Walkey A, Black TA (1934) An examination of the Dugtijaraff method for determining soil organic matter and proposed modification of the chronic and titration method. Soil Sci 37:23–38
Wang W, Driscoll CT (1995) Patterns of total mercury concentrations in Onondaga Lake, New York. Environ Sci Technol 29:2261–2266
Windom H, Schropp S, Calder F, Ryan J, Smith R, Burney L, Lewis F, Rawlinson C (1989) Natural trace metal concentrations in estuarine and coastal marine sediments of the southeastern United States. Environ Sci Technol 23:314–320
Acknowledgments
The work was carried out from a research project funded by Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India entitled “Concentration of heavy metals in sediment profiles of Sunderban mangrove environment, northeast India” bearing sanction No. 24/(0276)/EMR-II. One of the authors (Mousumi Chatterjee) is greatly indebted to CSIR for awarding her JRF.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chatterjee, M., Canário, J., Sarkar, S.K. et al. Mercury enrichments in core sediments in Hugli–Matla–Bidyadhari estuarine complex, north-eastern part of the Bay of Bengal and their ecotoxicological significance. Environ Geol 57, 1125–1134 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1404-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00254-008-1404-z