Monitoring and assessment of heavy metal contamination in surface water and sediment of the Old Brahmaputra River, Bangladesh

Md Simul Bhuyan,Md Shafiqul Islam,Sang Yong Chung,Muhammad Abu Bakar,Venkatramanan Senapathi,Md Rashed-Un-Nabi

doi:10.1007/s13201-019-1004-y

Abstract

The present study was conducted to measure globally alarming of ten heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Al, Ni, Co, Zn and Mn) in surface water and sediment of the Old Brahmaputra River in Bangladesh. The observed order of heavy metal mean concentration in water and sediments is Al > Mn > Ni > Co > Cu > Pb > Zn > Cr > Cd > Hg in mg/l and Al > Mn > Zn > Ni > Pb > Cr > Cu > Co > Cd > Hg in mg/kg, respectively. The significant variations of Cr, Cu, Al and Ni were found in the water of all seasons (p < 0.05), while sediment showed Pb and Hg exhibited substantial changes in terms of seasons (p < 0.05). Principal component analysis and correlation matrix revealed that significant anthropogenic input of Pb, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Al, Ni, Co, Zn and Mn in water and sediment. In case of water, very strong linear relationships exhibited in Ni versus Cu (0.911), Ni versus Al (0.910), Mn versus Co (0.882), Cr versus Al (0.877), Cu versus Cd (0.853), Ni versus Pb (0.850), Zn versus Cr (0.833), Ni versus Cd (0.828), Cu versus Cr (0.827), Al versus Cd (0.827) and Zn versus Co (0.804) at the significance level 0.05. In sediments, very strong linear relationships were noted in Zn versus Cr (0.889), Al versus Pb (0.848), Co versus Al (0.819) and Mn versus Co (0.806) at the significance level 0.05. The result discovered that water and sediment quality of the Old Brahmaputra River became contaminated due to the anthropogenic sources of industrial, domestic and irrigation discharges. This environmental monitoring and assessment research will be useful for the management and planning for the protection of this river.

Highlights

Contamination of heavy metals in river water and sediments is the major environmental focus especially during the last decade (Ozmen et al 2004; Fernandes et al 2008)1 3 Vol.:(0123456789) 125 Page 2 of 13Applied Water Science (2019) 9:125 ecosystems is due to the effects of unplanned urbanization and haphazard industrialization (Zhang et al 2011; Bai et al 2011; Grigoratos et al 2014; Martin et al 2015; Bhuyan and Islam 2017, Chung et al 2018)
A strong relationship was observed in Cr versus Cd (0.760), Hg versus Cr (0.754), Cd versus Pb (0.742), Co versus Cr (0.742) and Ni versus Cr (0.719) at the level of 0.01. These results indicated that there was some original relationship between heavy metals, and revealed two different probable heavy metal sources such as anthropogenic and lithogenic (Islam et al 2016a, b)
Principal component analysis (PCA) suggested that the contribution of metals in water and sediments was derived from the anthropogenic origin in addition to lithogenic

Summary

Introduction

Applied Water Science (2019) 9:125 ecosystems is due to the effects of unplanned urbanization and haphazard industrialization (Zhang et al 2011; Bai et al 2011; Grigoratos et al 2014; Martin et al 2015; Bhuyan and Islam 2017, Chung et al 2018). These activities can generate heavy metals in sediment and water that pollute the aquatic environment (Sanchez-Chardi et al 2007). These soluble forms of the heavy metals may be found in crustaceans, finfish and shellfish (NNPC and RIP 1986) and can be shifted to humans via the food chain pathways (Camusso et al 1995; Sun et al 2001; Zhou et al 2004; Sharma et al 2007; Yi et al 2011; Alhashemi et al 2012; Pan and Wang 2012; Rahman et al 2013; Islam et al 2015a; Ahmed et al 2015a, b)

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