An Assessment of Physico-chemical Characteristics of Charan Beel, a Freshwater Wetland in Morigaon District, Assam, India

Abstract

Wetlands are one of the earth’s most important ecosystem which provides food and habitat for aquatic life. Charan beel is an oxbow shaped wetland, situated in the district of Morigaon, Assam. The fresh water, perennial, large, lentic water bodies are popularly known as ‘Beel’ in Assam. Determination of land use and land cover changes in the wetland was done by using Remote Sensing and GIS. Buffer operation of the wetland was done for two kilometers to assess the land use change in and around the beel for 1998, 2008 and 2018. Eight land use and land cover types were identified using a handheld GPS receiver. The main objective of this paper is to determine the various physico-chemical parameters of Charan beel like water temperature, PH, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, turbidity, free carbon dioxide, dissolved oxygen, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. The minimum and maximum values, mean values, standard deviations along with the Karl Pearson’s correlation coefficients were also calculated and the results indicate significant positive and negative relationships among the different physico-chemical parameters. The high value of PH and dissolved oxygen obtained during the winter season and showed the inverse relation with temperature, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, turbidity, free carbon dioxide, biochemical oxygen demand, chemical oxygen demand. The maximum value of temperature, total dissolved solids, electrical conductivity, turbidity, biochemical oxygen demand and chemical oxygen demand found in the Monsoon. The study revealed that the water quality is rich in total dissolved solids, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium content which indicates that the wetland is moderately eutrophicated.