Abstract
Water quality testing was compulsory for management of safe and reliable water sources. Various sources of pollution and destruction of mangrove forest decrease the quality of river water. Thus a study was conducted to determine the water quality status of mangrove forest river water of Awat-Awat Lawas Sarawak and compare the water quality status of disturbed and undisturbed mangrove forest river in that area. Samples from twelve sampling stations were collected from both mangrove forest river from October 2013 to March 2014. In-situ data collected (pH, temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), salinity, turbidity, total dissolved solid (TDS), conductivity) and laboratory analysis (biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), chemical oxygen demand (COD), ammoniacal nitrogen (AN), total suspended solid (TSS)) were conducted according to the Standard method of Examination of Water and Wastewater AHPA 2005. Six water parameters: pH, DO, BOD, COD, AN and TSS value were used in calculating the Water Quality Index (WQI). Mean values for disturbed area were follows, pH (7.07), temperature (29.93°C), salinity (15.64 PSU), turbidity (55.13 NTU), DO (4.59 mg/L), BOD (0.73 mg/L), COD (10.16 mg/L), AN (0.14 mg/L), TSS (53.92 mg/L), TDS (23.14 mg/L) and conductivity (2.61 ms/m). Undisturbed area results were, pH (6.84), temperature (28.32°C), salinity (14.65 PSU), turbidity (35.41 NTU), DO (2.39 mg/L), BOD (0.55 mg/L), COD (15.82 mg/L), AN (0.13 mg/L), TSS (53.23 mg/L), TDS (22.82 mg/L) and conductivity (2.34 ms/m). There were no significant differences between two locations except for DO. Both water qualities of disturbed and undisturbed mangrove forest river were found under Class III, which describe that the water bodies are in moderate quality status.
Highlights
Poor water quality is harmful to living organism and water ecosystem
Average water quality status for disturbed and undisturbed mangrove forest river water were in Class III (Table 1)
The comparison mean for each parameter showed there is no significant difference among the parameters except for dissolved oxygen (DO) between disturbed and undisturbed mangrove forest river
Summary
Poor water quality is harmful to living organism and water ecosystem. According to Winter et al (1998), the interaction of ground water and surface water was affected by human activities and natural process may cause unfavorable aquatic environment. Murty and Kumar (2011) stated that water can load pollution naturally without decreasing in quality. Due to the increasing rate of human population, the exploration of mangrove forest through human activities such as logging activities, deforestation, agricultural land, and waste from industry gives negative impact to the environment and to water quality of mangrove forest (Hauff et al, 2006; Smith, 1992; Lugo & Snedaker, 1974). According to Picket and White (1985) in Gurvich et al, 2005, disturbance is “any relatively several events in time that disrupts ecosystem, community or population structure and change resources, substrate availability or the physical environment”; while undisturbed mangrove forest can be defined as the natural forest without any implementation and exploration of human activities that hold original high density of population
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