The distributions of water quality parameters viz. temp, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended substances (TSS), nutrients NO 2-N, NO 3-N, NH 4-N, PO 4-P, SiO 4-Si, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorous (TP) and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) were studied in the Mahanadi river and costal environment of Paradip in two different seasons i.e. post-monsoon and summer during 2006-2007. Results of nutrient concentrations were exhibited higher indicates that large inputs possibly from two major fertilizer plants, municipal sewage from Paradip town and agricultural runoff. In the estuary most of the nutrients showed higher values (NO 3 7.23 Î¼mol/l, NH 4 6.32 Î¼mol/l, PO 4 16.03 Î¼mol/l and SiO 4 15.32 Î¼mol/l) during post-monsoon as compared to the costal stations. The PO 4 TN, TP and SiO 4-Si showed a well-defined pattern of distribution with higher concentration in estuarine water of Mahanadi estuary during summer

Das, S

Khadanga, MK

Sahu, BK

Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India

World Applied Sciences Journal 17 (6): 797-801, 2012
ISSN 1818-4952
© IDOSI Publications, 2012
Corresponding Author: Mukunda Kesari Khadanga, Coastal & Environmental Engineering (CEE),
National Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (NIOT), Ministry of Earth Science (MoES), 
NIOT Campus, Chennai 600 100, India.  Tel: +919543355125(M), 044-66783440(O),
797
Seasonal Variation of the Water Quality Parameters and its Influences in
the Mahanadi Estuary and near Coastal Environment, East Coast of India
Mukunda Kesari Khadanga, Snehalata Das and Bijoy Kumar Sahu12 3 2
National Institute of Ocean Science and Technology (NIOT)1
Ministry of Earth Science (MoES), NIOT Campus, Chennai 600 100, India
Department of Marine Sciences, Berhampur University, Bhanjabihar, Berhampur, 760007, Orissa, India2
Department of Biotechnology & Bio-Informatics, AMIT, 22/2-Jharana,3
Forest Park, Bhubaneswar, 751009, Odisha
Abstract: The distributions of water quality parameters viz. temp, salinity, dissolved oxygen (DO), biochemical
oxygen demand (BOD), total suspended substances (TSS), nutrients [NO -N, NO -N, NH -N, PO -P, SiO -Si,2 3 4 4 4
total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorous (TP)] and Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) were studied in the Mahanadi river and
costal environment of Paradip in two different seasons i.e. post-monsoon and summer during 2006-2007. Results
of nutrient concentrations were exhibited higher indicates that large inputs possibly from two major fertilizer
plants, municipal sewage from Paradip town and agricultural runoff. In the estuary most of the nutrients showed
higher values (NO  7.23 µmol/l, NH  6.32 µmol/l, PO 16.03 µmol/l and SiO  15.32 µmol/l ) during post-monsoon3 4 4 4
as compared to the costal stations. The PO TN, TP and SiO -Si showed a well-defined pattern of distribution4, 4
with higher concentration in estuarine water of Mahanadi estuary during summer.
Key words: Water quality  Nutrients  Pollution  Industrial wastes  Domestic sewage  Mahanadi estuary
INRODUCTION system. The progressing of large industries in Paradip has
The environmental pollution is the major problem in and coastal water environment. The sewage from urban
the marine environment. Industrialization and rapid areas and industrial wastages contributes a constant
increase in human population have resulted in source of pollutants, where as the surface runoff is a
transformation of the natural   environment. The seasonal phenomenon largely affects by climate in the
environment became hostile, posing many threats to basin. The urban inputs, agricultural runoff and industrial
health and welfare because of pollutants released into the inputs play a vital role in nutrient cycling, water quality,
environment [1]. The environmental impacts of municipal eutrophication, biota abundance and overall food web
wastewater and industrial effluents discharge on receiving dynamics in estuarine  and  near  shore  ecosystems.
water are numerous and inputs of contaminants can affect Apart from this, fishing activities near the estuary also
the aquatic biota as well as the health of the coastal influence the water quality parameters [4]. Mahanadi is
environment [2]. The surface water quality is very one of the major rivers in India and is the largest river of
sensitive issue due to anthropogenic influence as well as Orissa state having the annual discharge of 66,640 mm .
natural processes (changes in precipitation inputs, The average annual rainfall is 1572 mm, of which 70% [2]
erosion, weathering of crustal materials)degrades surface is precipitated during the southeast monsoon but mid
water and impair use for drinking, industrial, agricultural, June to mid October. The growth of industrialization and
recreation and other purposes [3]. Estuaries constitute a urbanization in the upstream and estuarine region of
major interface between land and the ocean and have Mahanadi, the largest river in Orissa is putting unique
been regarded as one of the most important aquatic pressure on estuarine and coastal resources.
become a threat to the health of the Mahanadi estuarine
3
World Appl. Sci. J., 17 (6): 797-801, 2012
798
Fig. 1: Station location map of the study area frozen by pouring some liquid nitrogen and kept frozen at
The water quality of Mahanadi river and estuarine acetone was poured in each tube, submerging the filter.
system has been studied by  many researchers  [2, 5-7]. All the tubes were then placed in ice-bucket containing
To know the present status of the pollution, the water ice mixed with salt so that the temperature is maintained
quality parameter in estuarine along with the coastal below 0°C. After arrival in lab the samples as such were
environment in Paradip was studied on seasonal basis. kept in -20°C freezer for 24 h. These were shaken
Study Area: Mahanadi drainage basin is the biggest extraction of the photosynthetic pigments. Quantification
along the east coast of India. The tidal  estuarine  part  of of the pigments in the acetone extract was done
the river covers a length of 10 km and has a  basin   area spectrophotometrically [10]. Extinctions of the acetone
of 9 km . Tidal cycle is semi-diurnal and is principally a extracts were measured at 750, 665, 664, 647, 630, 510and2
wave-dominated coast during the southwest monsoon 480 nm. Before measuring the extinctions the acetone
season and during the non-monsoon period it is mixed extracts were centrifuged at 20°C at 15000 × g in a
wave and tide dominated. Paradip port situated at the Beckman refrigerated centrifuge.
northern end of Bay of Bengal and act as important
shoreline harbours along the east coast of India. Apart RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
fishing harbour activities at the estuary this affects the
water quality greatly. The effluents in Mahanadi estuary Seasonal variations of water quality parameters in
mostly receive from fertilizer plants, small industries and surface water at Paradip and Mahanadi coastal transect
domestic sewages of Paradip and surroundings. along with estuary are given in (Fig. 2). Water temperature
Atharbanki creek that flows to the Mahanadi estuary in coastal water of Paradip and Mahanadi varied between
heavily loads with municipal sewage, phosphates and 21.3 and 28.5°C. Salinity varied from 1.62 to 31.36 PSU
solid wastes.. The anthropogenic and port activities also (Table.1) in surface water. The lowest salinity was found
largely influence the estuarine environment of Mahanadi in estuary water in post-monsoon period. It showed an
and meets Bay of Bengal at Paradip coast as shown in increasing trend in seaward direction, due to the river run
(Fig. 1). off in this period and high dilution in the estuary. The pH
MATERIALS AND METHODS oxygen varied from 5.21 to 7.98 mg/l in surface water.
Along the Paradip coast, two transects (Paradip and as compared to the coastal water indicates that a high
Mahanadi) perpendicular to the shoreline were selected organic  load  from  the  sewage of Paradip port, town ship
for the present investigation (Fig. 1). Each transect
comprises of three stations located at 0, 1 and 5 Km from
the shoreline. Water samples were collected in November
2006 and February 2007 from all the stations of these two
transects along with estuary during low and high tide
periods. Surface water samples were collected with the
help of “Aquatrap” water sampler.  Water  temperature
and pH were measured by using WTW Kit in the field.
The parameters Salinity, (DO), BOD and TSS were
analysed by the standard methods [8]. The Nutrients and
Chlorophyll-a pigment were determined by UV- visible
spectrophotometer (Perkin Elmer, Lambda 35) as described
in methods of seawater analysis [9]. For the determination
of Chlorophyll-a concentration 1 liters of the sea water
samples were vacuum filtered on GF/C filter. After blotting
out the water properly, each filter with the phytoplankton
mass was transferred to 16ml PP (polypropylene)
centrifuge tube with air tight cap. This was immediately
<0°C in freezer. On the final day, 7ml of ice-cold 90%
vigorously in dark at regular interval to ensure complete
in surface water was in the range of 7.25 to 8.42. Dissolved
Slightly lower values of DO were recorded estuarine water
World Appl. Sci. J., 17 (6): 797-801, 2012
799
Fig. 2: Seasonal variation of salinity in Mahanadi estuary and coastal water during 2006.
Fig. 3: Seasonal variation of dissolved oxygen (DO) and biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) in Mahanadi estuary and
coastal water during 2006.
Fig. 4: Seasonal variation of nitrate (NO  -N), ammonia (NH ) and total nitrogen (TN) in Mahanadi estuary and coastal2 4+
water during 2006.
Fig. 5: Seasonal variation of phosphate (PO  –p ) and total phosphorus (TP) in Mahanadi estuary and coastal water4
during 2006.
World Appl. Sci. J., 17 (6): 797-801, 2012
800
Fig. 6: Seasonal variation of silicate (SiO  –Si) and chlorophyll-a in Mahanadi estuary and coastal water during 20064
Table 1: The variation of mean, standard deviation (SD) values of
environmental variables in the Mahanadi and Paradip coastal water
Mahanadi estuary Mahanadi coastal Paradip coastal
Mean±SD Mean±SD Mean±SD
Water temperature 26.90±1.52 24.70±3.22 26.93±1.23
SSC 17.00±11.90 14.62±8.19 11.55±3.53
pH 7.83±0.36 7.61±1.64 8.50±0.18
Salinity 19.06±11.67 27.24±3.97 23.70±4.97
DO 6.68±1.11 6.58±0.30 6.99±0.47
BOD 2.46±0.73 2.29±0.62 2.18±0.68
NO 0.83±0.33 0.50±0.25 0.51±0.232
NO 4.05±0.90 3.07±0.97 3.31±1.873
NH 4.38±1.41 3.41±0.98 3.28±1.194
TN 53.57±5.71 47.35±8.45 50.70±7.54
IP 10.43±3.85 6.30±1.56 5.47±1.20
TP 12.41±2.84 8.16±1.77 7.09±1.87
SiO 12.14±1.53 7.01±2.94 6.26±2.104
Chlorophyll-a 1.42±0.51 1.16±0.30 0.93±0.25
as well as effluents from fertilizer industry situated
upstream of the Mahanadi estuary [2]. The BOD ranged
between 1.35 to 3.21 mg/l in coastal water. Higher BOD
was found in estuary water as compared to the coastal
water due to the large amount of municipal sewage
wastes, effluents from industries. Atharbanki creek carries
all the sewage Paradip township and industrial effluents
from fertilizer industry direct in to the estuarine
environment. Increase in the DO and decrease in BOD
were observed from shore to offshore stations.
Suspended solids varied from 6.96 to 35.35 mg/l that were
well within the permissible limits [11]. The variations of
nutrients concentrations in coastal water ranged between
0.36 µmol/l to 1.25 µmol/l of NO , 1.65 µmol/l to 5.32 µmol/l2
of NO , 2.69 µmol/l to 6.32 µmol/l of NH , 35.62 µmol/l to3 4
62.35 µmol/l of TN, 6.21 µmol/l to 16.03 µmol/l of PO , 7.654
µmol/l to 16.31 µmol/l of TP and 5.21 µmol/l to 10.02 of
µmol/l SiO . In general the nutrient concentrations were4
higher in estuary water as compared the coastal water.
The higher concentrations of PO , TP, SiO  in Mahanadi4 4
transect compared to those in Paradip transect may be
due to the impact of riverine discharges and effluents from
phosphatic fertilizer plants that situated near the estuarine
region [11]. The Chl-a concentration ranged from 0.85 to
2.16 mg/m in coastal transects of Mahanadi and Paradip.3
The Chl-a concentration was to be higher in estuarine
water compared to the coastal transects, which could be
due to the higher abundance of phytoplankton and
nutrients.
CONCLUSION
The costal environment is under stress of municipal
sewage and industrial effluent discharge by receiving
huge water inputs of contaminates which could be
hazardous to the living organisms. The organic sewage is
reflected through the high BOD and lower DO in the
Mahanadi estuary during low tide. The higher
concentration of PO , TP, TN, SiO4 and BOD in4
Mahanadi coastal water  compared  to  the  Paradip
coastal water due to the effluent discharge by the
industry and fertilizer plants. The seasonal nutrient
variations  exhibit  higher  value  during  post  monsoon
as compared to the summer, which might be due to river
runoff.  There  were  no  regular variations of pH and
water temperature  in  the  water  quality  within  5 km
from  shoreline.  The  analysis  need to be more
thoroughly for finding the spatiotemporal changes in
estuarine environment under time series observation for
the sustainable ecosystem management as the
contaminated with higher value  of  exceptional PO , TP,4
TN and SiO  including physical and biological parameter4
input alter the ecology of the costal environment that
causes greatly affecting the overall biotic community of
the ecosystem.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The authors wish to thank the HOD, Marine science
department for their generous help and encouragement.
We express our sincere thanks and deep appreciation to
our colleagues, who assisted us in field data collection
and laboratory work.
World Appl. Sci. J., 17 (6): 797-801, 2012
801
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Seasonal variation of the water quality parameters and its influences in the mahanadi estuary and near coastal environment, east coast of India

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Seasonal variation of the water quality parameters and its influences in the mahanadi estuary and near coastal environment, east coast of India

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