Nutrients and trace metals biogeochemistry of Baraila wetland Vaishali Bihar India

Abstract

Freshwater wetlands are one of the most productive ecosystems on earth providing multiple newlinebenefits like nutrient cycling, flood control, pollution control, carbon sequestration, climate newlinechange mitigation, food and fodder, and recreation among others. However, recent human newlinedemands for water owing to population explosion and excessive pressure for agricultural newlinemodernization has posed immense danger to these vulnerable aquatic ecosystems. Their newlinenatural capacity to perform the ecological functions has been declining and there is an newlineurgent need to restore them and prevent them from being extinct. In order to unravel the newlinesignificance, source, fate and processes related to nutrients biogeochemistry and trace newlinemetals pollution status, an important floodplain marsh of Bihar, namely Baraila wetland newlinewas chosen. It is one of the most important wetlands of Bihar known for its immense newlineecological and hydrological significance for the population residing near it. Firstly, newlinehydrochemical and geomorphological characterization of the Baraila wetland was newlineperformed with the help of spatio-temporal assessment of important hydrochemical and newlinephysicochemical factors in GIS environment. The multivariate statistics, piper diagram and newlineGibbs plots were employed to reveal the water characteristics in trans-vertical dimension. newlineFurthermore, the water was assessed for its irrigational suitability with the help of various newlineindices [(sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), %Na, residual sodium carbonate (RSC), newlinemagnesium hazard (MH) and total hardness (TH)] and Wilcox plot. The study was newlineinsightful towards determining water character which was primarily Ca-HCO3 type, mostly newlinederived from rock-water interactions and cation exchange processes. The changes in water newlinedepth across the seasons showed significant hydrochemical variations in the vertical profile newlineof the wetland. Seasonal variations in the hydrogeochemistry were influenced by multiple newlinephysicochemical parameters, geochemical processes, geomorphology of the surrounding newlinearea and land use and land cover