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COVID-19 lockdown–driven changes in the Ganga River ecosystem in response to human perturbations
We examined 10 subsurface water, 5 benthic water and 19 sediment (02 cm) samples along a 518 km of the middle segment of the Ganga River to assess the possible improvements that resulted from the industrial shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sites included the main stem river, tributary conf...
Autores principales: | , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Springer International Publishing
2022
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9546754/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36208349 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10507-9 |
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author | Singh, Madhulika Pandey, Jitendra |
author_facet | Singh, Madhulika Pandey, Jitendra |
author_sort | Singh, Madhulika |
collection | PubMed |
description | We examined 10 subsurface water, 5 benthic water and 19 sediment (02 cm) samples along a 518 km of the middle segment of the Ganga River to assess the possible improvements that resulted from the industrial shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sites included the main stem river, tributary confluences, and two point sources, one of which releases metal-rich effluents and the other flushes municipal sewage. We found significant declines in the carbon, nutrient and metal concentrations in both the water and sediment. Even the most polluted zones did not show hypoxia (dissolve oxygen; DO < 2.0 mg L(−1)) that had been observed in the previous year. Despite a significant decline in carbon and nitrogen as substrates, the activities of extracellular enzymes (EEs), such as β-D-glucosidase, FDAase and protease in sediment (0–2 cm depth), increased significantly (p < 0.05) in response to the declining metal concentrations resulting from the industrial shutdown. We found strong negative correlations between EE activity and the concentrations of metal pollutants measured in 2019, but the correlations between these variables appeared poor in 2020 (lockdown period). Also, we found large variances (low stability coefficients) during the period of strong anthropogenic effects (2019). The study indicates that industrial sources are important contributors of metal pollution in the Ganga River and has relevance exploring river ecosystem recovery windows for management decisions. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-9546754 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2022 |
publisher | Springer International Publishing |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-95467542022-10-11 COVID-19 lockdown–driven changes in the Ganga River ecosystem in response to human perturbations Singh, Madhulika Pandey, Jitendra Environ Monit Assess Article We examined 10 subsurface water, 5 benthic water and 19 sediment (02 cm) samples along a 518 km of the middle segment of the Ganga River to assess the possible improvements that resulted from the industrial shutdown during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sites included the main stem river, tributary confluences, and two point sources, one of which releases metal-rich effluents and the other flushes municipal sewage. We found significant declines in the carbon, nutrient and metal concentrations in both the water and sediment. Even the most polluted zones did not show hypoxia (dissolve oxygen; DO < 2.0 mg L(−1)) that had been observed in the previous year. Despite a significant decline in carbon and nitrogen as substrates, the activities of extracellular enzymes (EEs), such as β-D-glucosidase, FDAase and protease in sediment (0–2 cm depth), increased significantly (p < 0.05) in response to the declining metal concentrations resulting from the industrial shutdown. We found strong negative correlations between EE activity and the concentrations of metal pollutants measured in 2019, but the correlations between these variables appeared poor in 2020 (lockdown period). Also, we found large variances (low stability coefficients) during the period of strong anthropogenic effects (2019). The study indicates that industrial sources are important contributors of metal pollution in the Ganga River and has relevance exploring river ecosystem recovery windows for management decisions. Springer International Publishing 2022-10-08 2022 /pmc/articles/PMC9546754/ /pubmed/36208349 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10507-9 Text en © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022, Springer Nature or its licensor holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law. This article is made available via the PMC Open Access Subset for unrestricted research re-use and secondary analysis in any form or by any means with acknowledgement of the original source. These permissions are granted for the duration of the World Health Organization (WHO) declaration of COVID-19 as a global pandemic. |
spellingShingle | Article Singh, Madhulika Pandey, Jitendra COVID-19 lockdown–driven changes in the Ganga River ecosystem in response to human perturbations |
title | COVID-19 lockdown–driven changes in the Ganga River ecosystem in response to human perturbations |
title_full | COVID-19 lockdown–driven changes in the Ganga River ecosystem in response to human perturbations |
title_fullStr | COVID-19 lockdown–driven changes in the Ganga River ecosystem in response to human perturbations |
title_full_unstemmed | COVID-19 lockdown–driven changes in the Ganga River ecosystem in response to human perturbations |
title_short | COVID-19 lockdown–driven changes in the Ganga River ecosystem in response to human perturbations |
title_sort | covid-19 lockdown–driven changes in the ganga river ecosystem in response to human perturbations |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9546754/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36208349 http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-10507-9 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT singhmadhulika covid19lockdowndrivenchangesinthegangariverecosysteminresponsetohumanperturbations AT pandeyjitendra covid19lockdowndrivenchangesinthegangariverecosysteminresponsetohumanperturbations |