Establishment of Baseline Reference Geochemical Values in Tropical Soils of Western Ghats: Assessment of Periyar Basin with Special Reference to Contaminant Geochemistry

Based on the detailed geochemical studies of 184 soil samples from Periyar River Basin (PRB), a tropical monsoon dominated river basin (5398 km²) in the southern western Ghats (WGs) of India, a baseline reference data is established. The soils are mildly acidic with sandy loam and silt loam facies in non-monsoon to sandy loam and sandy clay loam in monsoon. The mean metal concentrations follow the upper continental crust and world shale values. The Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) shows unpolluted to moderately polluted category, except for Cu, Zn, and Ba, while Enrichment Factor (EF) indicates no to minor enrichment for all elements. Contamination factor (Cf) indicates low to considerable contamination for V, Rb, Sr, Ni, and low to very high contamination for Cu, Zn, and Ba. Three significant components are extracted by Principal Component Analysis (PCA), explaining 78.09% and 74.10% of the total variance for monsoon and non-monsoon seasons. Ti, Al, Fe, Ca, Na, K, V, Cr, Ni, Sr, and Ba exhibited common source of origin while anthropogenic origin is identified for Zn and Cu. The study will provide valuable information into the pedological characteristics of WGs river basins.