Temporal and spatial variation of sediment associated biotic communities with heavy metal contamination gradient at Dhamra estuary, Odisha

Abstract

Total Viable Cell count (TVC), Total Coli form (TC), Fungus, macro benthos, total organic matter and heavy metals of the collected sediment samples were analyzed. Multivariate statistics in terms of factor analysis were also evaluated for environmental variables to measure the complex eco-toxicological processes by showing the association and interdependency among the variables. The factor loadings on the basis of principal component analysis of selected metals and some biological parameters yielded three PCs with significant eigen values and a cumulative variance of 62.04 %. Among these F1 was showing strong positive loadings of Cu, Zn, Cr, Mn, Organic Matter, TVC and Fauna. A strong negative correlation of Cr with Pb, fungus with Co was also found. Contamination factor, Degree of contamination, Pollution load index, Geo accumulation index and enrichment factor were analyzed to assess the pollution load.