Heavy metals in nearshore sediments of Kalpakkam,southeast coast of India

Kalpakkam, a tiny fishing hamlet dotting the east coast, halfway between Chennai and Pondicherry has become prominent due to the Madras Atomic Power Station. The present study aims at assessing the spatial and temporal distribution pattern of heavy metals (Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, Ni, Cr, and Fe) from 12 stations along the inner shelf of Bay of Bengal, India, during pre-monsoon (PRM), monsoon, and post-monsoon (POM) seasons. The order of occurrence of the metals in sediments of Kalpakkam is Cr > Zn > Ni > Cu > Pb > Cd (excluding Fe since unit is in %) and exhibits a unique seasonal pattern with the highest values (average) during POM except for Cd which shows highest (average) concentration during PRM. In order to determine the sample association according to their geochemical composition and their granulometric characteristics, a correlation matrix was generated and sediment pollution indices viz., sediment enrichment factor and geoaccumulation index were computed. The results confirm anthropogenic input of Cd to nearshore sediments of Kalpakkam. Sources of Cd can be attributed to dredging activities at Edaiyur, direct dumping and sewage sludge from anthropogenic activities, which reach the study area through the Buckingham Canal opening at the backwaters—Sadras and Edaiyur, and extreme use of antifouling paints by fishing trawlers.     

Mangrove sediments a sink for heavy metals? An assessment of Muthupet mangroves of Tamil Nadu,southeast coast of India

Mangrove forests are one of the most productive and biodiverse wetlands on earth. Yet, these unique coastal tropical forests are among the most threatened habitats in the world. Muthupet mangroves situated in the southeastern coast of India, has a reverse “L” shaped structure. Four cores were collected in 2008, sliced and subsampled at 2.5 cm length. The heavy metals (Mn, Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cr, Cd) and other associated geochemical parameters were evaluated to determine pollution history of Muthupet. An evaluation of the status of heavy metal pollution through the index analysis approach was attempted by computing geoaccumulation index, anthropogenic factor, enrichment factor, contamination factor and degree of contamination, pollution load index and metal pollution index. To compensate for the natural variability of heavy metals in the core sediments, normalization using Al was carried out so that, any anthropogenic metal contributions may be detected and quantified. Results of the study reveal that significant metal contamination exists, and all the metals are found to be higher than continental crustal values. The fine sediments of Muthupet vary between uncontaminated and moderately contaminated with almost no enrichment (EF < 1) to severe enrichment (EF > 10). On comparison, the core collected close to aquafarms and dense mangrove forest (C3) is the most polluted core and the core retrieved where minor rivers drain (C2) is the least polluted.     

Geochemical characteristics and depositional environment of Kalpakkam, southeast coast of India

Sediments from Kalpakkam, southeast coast of India were geochemically analyzed to document the provenance, tectonic setting, and role of chemical weathering. The sediments are dominated by quartz (Si), and the higher concentration of Si suggests the presence of quartz (±feldspar) dominated terrigenous sands. The study demonstrates that the sediments are derived from the granitic to gneissic or from a sedimentary source. Beach sediments are deposited in a passive continental margin setting and seabed sediments are deposited in active continental margin. In the A–CN–K diagram, most of the samples fall in the lower part, i.e., below the plagioclase feldspar joint which indicates a low degree of alteration. Only S6 falls just above the plagioclase feldspar joint, close to the AK boundary suggesting a slightly advanced weathering of sediment and source. Beach and seabed sediments lie close to CNK and FM region suggesting the presence of ferromagnesian minerals (likely to be pyroxene) except S6 which falls in the inner triangle of the minerals feldspar, garnet, and biotite in A-CNK-FM diagram. Both CIA and CIW values depict the unweathered nature of the sediments under humid to semi-humid climatic conditions.     

Geochemical and statistical approach for evaluation of heavy metal pollution in core sediments in southeast coast of India

Industrialization coupled with urbanizaton has led to stress in the Buckingham Canal which runs parallel to Bay of Bengal at a distance of around 1 km from the coastline. 4 sediment cores were collected along Ennore — Pulicat stretch to determine acid leachable trace metal concentration. Core samples were collected using gravity corer. The cores were sliced horizontally at 2.5 cm to determine the grain size, sediment composition, pH, organic matter, calcium carbonate, acid leachable trace metals; cadmium, chromium, copper, lead, zinc. The trace metals were extracted using acid mixture containing hydro fluoric acid, nitric acid and sulphuric acid and analysed by atomic emission spectrophotometer. In an attempt to infer anthropogenic input from geogenic input, several approaches including comparison with sediment quality guidelines — ecotoxicological sense of heavy metal contamination and classification by quantitative indexes such as geoaccumalation index, anthropogenic factor, enrichment factor, contamination factor and degree and pollution load index was attempted. Grain size analysis and sediment composition of core samples shows Ennore is sandy in nature having a neutral pH. Organic matter enrichment is observed to a higher extent in core 3. Core 2 at a depth of 5 cm shows organic matter of 9.4 %. calcium carbonate is totally absent at the surface sediments in core 2. Cores collected within the canal showed a higher heavy metal concentration than the cores collected from Pulicat lagoon and 2 km into the Ennore Sea. The trace metal concentration for cadmium, lead and zinc in Ennore does not pose a threat to the sediment dwelling fauna whereas chromium and copper are likely to pose a threat. Quantitative indexes place Ennore under moderately polluted. Ennore is likely to face a serious threat of metal pollution with the present deposition rates unless stringent pollution control norms are adopted.     

Effect of climate change on design wind at the Indian offshore locations

The impact of climate change on design wind speeds corresponding to different return periods at two selected offshore locations in India has been assessed. Extreme daily wind speeds corresponding to various return periods were derived based on the observations made by wave rider buoys during the period 1998–2005. Thereafter, the future climate over the next century was simulated at these locations using the input from the climate model: GCM-CGCM3 corresponding to the A2 scenario. The underlying downscaling model was developed with the help of artificial neural networks and using observed wind as output. The local wind speeds corresponding to these projected wind data were generated for the next century and return period wind speeds were extracted by the distribution fitting. Comparison of design wind speeds derived with and without consideration of future climate showed that the magnitude of the long term wind speed would certainly and significantly increases if the effect of global climate change is incorporated in the analysis. For the two locations considered, the increase in the 100-year wind was found to be varying from 44% to 74%.     

Daily modes of South Asian summer monsoon variability in the NCEP climate forecast system

The leading modes of daily variability of the Indian summer monsoon in the climate forecast system (CFS), a coupled general circulation model, of the National Centers for Environmental Predictions (NCEP) are examined. The space?Ctime structures of the daily modes are obtained by applying multi-channel singular spectrum analysis (MSSA) on the daily anomalies of rainfall. Relations of the daily modes to intraseasonal and interannual variability of the monsoon are investigated. The CFS has three intraseasonal oscillations with periods around 106, 57 and 30?days with a combined variance of 7%. The 106-day mode has spatial structure and propagation features similar to the northeastward propagating 45-day mode in the observations except for its longer period. The 57-day mode, despite being in the same time scale as of the observations has poor eastward propagation. The 30-day mode is northwestward propagating and is similar to its observational counterpart. The 106-day mode is specific to the model and should not be mistaken for a new scale of variability in observations. The dominant interannual signal is related to El Ni?o-Southern Oscillation (ENSO), and, unlike in the observations, has maximum variance in the eastern equatorial Indian Ocean. Although the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) mode was not obtained as a separate mode in the rainfall, the ENSO signal has good correlations with the dipole variability, which, therefore, indicates the dominance of ENSO in the model. The interannual variability is largely determined by the ENSO signal over the regions where it has maximum variance. The interannual variability of the intraseasonal oscillations is smaller in comparison.     

Stability assessment and characterization of colloids in coastal groundwater aquifer system at Kalpakkam

Natural colloids have a potential role in facilitating the transport of radionuclides in groundwater. To assess the role of mobile colloidal phases in radionuclide transport, characterization of colloids for size, size distribution, zeta potential, surface charge and elemental composition is required. Groundwater samples were collected from 12 borewells in the study area and were characterized with respect to physicochemical parameters. Water quality parameters such as pH, temperature, specific conductance, TDS and dissolved O₂ were measured in situ. Based on salinity, two groundwater types were identified in the study area: (1) freshwater type and (2) brackish type. Laboratory and field-scale turbidity measurements in addition to quantitative analysis of major ions were carried out. It was observed that the colloid concentrations are reduced at higher salinity. Zetasizer, particle size analyzer, scanning electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray analysis and X-ray diffraction techniques were used to characterize the colloidal particles in groundwater. Colloids were present in all the groundwater samples, the concentration varying between 0.05 and 6 mg/L. Colloid concentration was greater in wells with low ionic strength and the number of colloidal particles varied between 3 × 10⁹ and 4 × 10¹¹ particles/L. The average colloid size varied between 200 and 350 nm for various samples. The zeta potential of the colloidal particles varied between −25.5 and –34.0 mV. SEM analysis of colloidal particles revealed the presence of clays particularly kaolinite and that the mineral composition of colloids reflects the mineralogy of the aquifer. For proper risk assessment and remediation studies, the role of colloids in radionuclide transport assumes greater importance. This study highlights the need for, and relevance of, detailed colloid characterization to assess its role in the migration of radionuclides from near surface disposal facilities.     

Sorption of Cesium on Clay Colloids: Kinetic and Thermodynamic Studies

Sorption of radionuclides onto stable colloids can significantly enhance their transport in groundwater. Batch adsorption studies were performed to evaluate the influence of various experimental parameters like initial pH, contact time, temperature and concentration of Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ ions on the sorption of Cs on clay. The sorption process is dependent on pH of the solution with distribution coefficient (K _d) found to increase with increase in pH. The kinetic experiments were carried out at different temperatures, and the results have shown that the sorption process fits well into a pseudo-second-order mechanism with apparent activation energy of 45.7?kJ/mol. The rate constant was found to decrease with increase in temperature. The thermodynamic parameters such as ?G ⁰, ?H ⁰ and ?S ⁰ were calculated. The negative value of ?H ⁰ indicates that the reaction is exothermic. The negative values obtained for ?G ⁰ indicated that the sorption of cesium on clay was spontaneous at all studied concentrations. The distribution coefficient was found to decrease with increasing concentration of Na⁺ and Ca²⁺ ions. The cesium sorption data were fitted to Freundlich, Langmuir, Temkin and Dubinin–Radushkevich (D–R) isotherms. The values of Langmuir separation factor (R _L) indicate a favorable Cs adsorption. The values of mean free energy of sorption (E) at various temperatures ranged from 10.5 to 11.1?kJ/mol, which indicates that the sorption process follows chemisorption.     

Simulating the diurnal cycle of rainfall in global climate models: resolution versus parameterization

The effects of horizontal resolution and the treatment of convection on simulation of the diurnal cycle of precipitation during boreal summer are analyzed in several innovative weather and climate model integrations. The simulations include: season-long integrations of the Non-hydrostatic Icosahedral Atmospheric Model (NICAM) with explicit clouds and convection; year-long integrations of the operational Integrated Forecast System (IFS) from the European Centre for Medium-range Weather Forecasts at three resolutions (125, 39 and 16 km); seasonal simulations of the same model at 10 km resolution; and seasonal simulations of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) low-resolution climate model with and without an embedded two-dimensional cloud-resolving model in each grid box. NICAM with explicit convection simulates best the phase of the diurnal cycle, as well as many regional features such as rainfall triggered by advancing sea breezes or high topography. However, NICAM greatly overestimates mean rainfall and the magnitude of the diurnal cycle. Introduction of an embedded cloud model within the NCAR model significantly improves global statistics of the seasonal mean and diurnal cycle of rainfall, as well as many regional features. However, errors often remain larger than for the other higher-resolution models. Increasing resolution alone has little impact on the timing of daily rainfall in IFS with parameterized convection, yet the amplitude of the diurnal cycle does improve along with the representation of mean rainfall. Variations during the day in atmospheric prognostic fields appear quite similar among models, suggesting that the distinctive treatments of model physics account for the differences in representing the diurnal cycle of precipitation.     

Intraseasonal oscillations of the monsoon circulation over South Asia

The space–time structure of the three-dimensional circulation over the South Asian monsoon region has been studied using the ERA-40 reanalysis of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts. Applying multi-channel singular spectrum analysis on combined daily values of horizontal winds and pressure vertical velocity at ten vertical levels for the period 1958–2001, two leading intraseasonal nonlinear oscillations were extracted. The first oscillation has an average period of 50?days and propagates northeastward from the Indian Ocean to the Indian subcontinent. The second oscillation has a period of 30?days and propagates northwestward from the West Pacific to the Indian region. Both the oscillations exhibit the oscillatory and propagation features at all vertical levels from 1,000 to 100?hPa. The two oscillations correspond well with similar oscillations found in outgoing longwave radiation and precipitation in earlier studies. The wind oscillations also account for the active and break phases of the Indian monsoon. The vertical structures and propagation of specific humidity and temperature are found to be consistent with those of the winds in each oscillation. The structure and movement of regional Hadley and Walker circulations have also been described. The analyses provide further strong evidence for the existence of two distinct monsoon intraseasonal oscillations.