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. 2024 Apr 10:920:170737.
doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.170737. Epub 2024 Feb 9.

Pollution indices of selected metals in tea (Camellia sinensis L.) growing soils of the Upper Assam region divulge a non-trifling menace of National Highway

Bidyot Bikash Gogoi  1 , Md Yeasin  2 , Ranjit Kumar Paul  2 , Diganta Deka  3 , Harisadhan Malakar  4 , Jiban Saikia  5 , Feroze Hasan Rahman  6 , C S Maiti  7 , Animesh Sarkar  7 , Jyotirekha G Handique  5 , Bappaditya Kanrar  8 , A K Singh  9 , Tanmoy Karak  10
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Pollution indices of selected metals in tea (Camellia sinensis L.) growing soils of the Upper Assam region divulge a non-trifling menace of National Highway

Bidyot Bikash Gogoi et al. Sci Total Environ. .

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of a National Highway (NH) traversing tea estates (TEs) on heavy metal (HM) contamination in the top soils of Upper Assam, India. The dispersion and accumulation of six HMs, viz. cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), and zinc (Zn), within tea-growing soils were assessed using diverse indices: contamination factor (CF), degree of contamination (DC), enrichment factor (EF), geo-accumulation index (Igeo), modified degree of contamination (MDC), Nemerow pollution index (PINemerow), pollution load index (PLI), potential ecological risk factor (Eri), and potential ecological risk index (RI). The order of HM prevalence was Fe > Mn > Zn > Ni > Cu > Cd. Elevated Cd levels near the NH prompted immediate attention, while Cd and Zn showed moderate pollution in CF, EF, and RI. The remaining metals posed minimal individual risk (Eri< 40), resulting in an overall contamination range of "nil to shallow," signifying slight contamination from the studied metals. From MDC values for investigated metals, it was found to be "zero to very low degree of contamination" at all locations except the vicinity of NH. Soil pollution, as determined by PLI, indicated unpolluted soils in both districts, yet PINemerow values indicated slight pollution. The statistical analysis revealed that there is a significant decrease in most of the indices of HM as the distance from NH increases. The application of multivariate statistical techniques namely Principal Component Analysis and Cluster Analysis showed the presence of three distinct homogenous groups of distances based on different indices. This investigation underscores NH-associated anthropogenic effects on TE soil quality due to HM deposition, warranting proactive mitigation measures.

Keywords: Heavy metals; National Highway; Pollution indices; Potential ecological risk index; Soil; Tea Estates.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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