Effect of Arsenic Contaminated Irrigation Water on the Seasonal Variability of Arsenic Threat on Soil and Vegetables at Nadia, West Bengal

Biswas, Arpita (2019) Effect of Arsenic Contaminated Irrigation Water on the Seasonal Variability of Arsenic Threat on Soil and Vegetables at Nadia, West Bengal. Masters thesis, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Kolkata.

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Abstract

Irrigation using high arsenic (As) contaminated groundwater in West Bengal contaminates soil and causes bioaccumulation of As in plant body parts through membrane and transporter proteins. The As uptake process in plants vary seasonally depending on the availability of As in groundwater. In this study we monitored As levels in different vegetable types (root vegetable, leafy vegetable, fruit vegetable) at Nadia, West Bengal, during monsoon (August’2018) and dry period (January’2019), grown in the household gardens and irrigation demand gets supplimented by bore well water. We sampled taro (Colocasia esculenta) as root vegetable; malabar spinach (Basella alba) as leafy vegetable; and egg plant (Solanum nelongena) as fruit vegetable in relation to their corresponding soil and irrigation water. We observed higher As concentration in irrigation water, eggplant and taro root, no significant trend observed for Basela, but lower As concentration in soil during monsoon period. We hypothesize that monsoonal high As from the irrigational water contaminates soil, which leads to increased bio-availibility of As due to its enhanced mobilization into the soil solution under water logged condition (monsoon). This in turn results in residual soil being depleted in As. The As in soil solution is uptaken into the shoot system through xylem-phloem and is accumulated in higher amount during monsoon. we observed enriched δ13C of SOC signature in the wet time soil possibly due to the increased microbial activity from the higher influx of organic carbon in the wet time.

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