Heavy metals in core sediments from the western Bay of Bengal: implications on historical pollution, eco-environmental risks, and potential sources

Abstract The western Bay of Bengal is particularly susceptible to the harmful impacts of increasing coastal pollution, as coastal population and urban development are occurring at unprecedented rates. The rapid urbanization and industrialization along the east coast of India coupled with the transfer of contaminants into the Bay of Bengal through riverine systems, causing a direct impact on marine ecosystems. In the present study, an attempt has been made to understand the heavy metal distribution on shelf sediments in the western part of the Bay of Bengal to infer their source, processes, and historical changes in marine pollution. Three short sediment core samples were collected and analysed for sediment texture, organic matter, and heavy metals. Cores 1 and 2 contain a high amount of sand content, representing shallow marine with moderate to high-energy conditions, and were deposited at a recent time. Core 3 was dominated by muddy sand to sandy mud, which denotes calm sedimentation without any turbulence, and these sediments were deposited under relatively low-energy conditions. The higher concentration of organic matter in the top layers of the core indicates both marine and terrestrial input. The heavy metal contents show quite heterogeneous and variable distributions from one element to another and from one core to another. The calculated pollution indices such as Contamination Factor (CF), and Geoaccumulation Index (Igeo) and Pollution Load Index (PLI) values indicate that all the core sub-samples are severely enriched and highly polluted by Cd and moderately polluted by Pb. The increased heavy metal concentration in the upper portion of the sediment cores and moderate to considerable ecological risks indicate that these metals have been deposited in the study area for the past few decades.