Saikat Sengupta

How paleosols influence groundwater flow and arsenic pollution: A model from the Bengal Basin and its worldwide implication

In the Bengal Basin, the land surface exposed during the last lowstand of sea level around 20 ka, and now buried by Holocene sediment, is capped by an effectively impermeable clay paleosol that we term the Last Glacial Maximum paleosol (LGMP). The paleosol strongly affects groundwater flow and controls the location of arsenic pollution in the shallow aquifers of our study site in southern West Bengal and, by implication, in shallow aquifers across the Bengal Basin and As-polluted deltaic aquifers worldwide. The presence of the LGMP defines paleointerfluvial areas; it is absent from paleochannel areas. A paleosol model of pollution proposed here predicts that groundwater in paleochannels is polluted by arsenic, while that beneath paleointerfluvial areas is not: paleointerfluvial aquifers are unpolluted because they are protected by the LGMP from downward migration of arsenic and from downward migration of organic matter that drives As-pollution via reductive dissolution of As-bearing iron oxyhydroxides. Horizontal groundwater flow carries arsenic from paleochannels toward paleointerfluvial aquifers, in which sorption of arsenic minimizes the risk of pollution.

Migration of As, and 3H/3He ages, in groundwater from West Bengal: Implications for monitoring

From 2002 to 2010 inclusive we monitored concentrations of arsenic (As) and major ions (Ca, Mg, Sr, Na, K, Fe, Mn, Cl, and SO(4)) in groundwater from 14 domestic wells and three piezometer nests in a shallow aquifer (<60 m depth), and 3 wells in a deep aquifer (>70 m depth), in southern West Bengal, India. In the deep aquifer, concentrations of As did not change over time despite increases in the concentration of Fe in two wells. The shallow aquifer occurs in two sedimentological settings: palaeo-channel and palaeo-interfluve. At the top of the shallow aquifer of the palaeo-channel, decreases in all constituent concentrations with time, and an (3)H/(3)He age of 1.4 years, proves that the aquifer is beginning to be flushed of pollutants. In As-polluted groundwater (>50 microg/L As) tapped from deeper grey sands of the shallow, palaeo-channel, aquifer, concentrations of As were mostly stable over time, but both increases and decreases occurred with time in response to downward migration of the chemically-stratified water column. In groundwater tapped from Pleistocene brown sands, the concentration of As remained either low and stable (<2 microg/L As), or increased at rates up to 34 microg/L per year. The increases were caused by the flow of As-rich groundwater either downward into brown sand at the base of palaeo-channels, or laterally into a confined, unpolluted, palaeo-interfluvial, aquifer of brown sand that lies regionally beneath a palaeosol. Under the present pumping regime, the prognosis for As-pollution in the shallow aquifer is complex. Wells in brown sand may become polluted over timescales of as little as 2 years, whilst some wells tapping As-polluted groundwater from grey sand will become fit for potable use (<50 microg/L) within a few decades. The evidence of flushing, and of declining As in some of the groundwater from palaeo-channels, which are conduits for recharge of the confined, As-free, palaeo-interfluve aquifer, and probably also the deeper aquifer, offers hopes that the spread of As-pollution will be limited.

Atmospheric controls on the precipitation isotopes over the Andaman Islands, Bay of Bengal.

Isotopic analysis of precipitation over the Andaman Island, Bay of Bengal was carried out for the year 2012 and 2013 in order to study the atmospheric controls on rainwater isotopic variations. The oxygen and hydrogen isotopic compositions are typical of the tropical marine sites but show significant variations depending on the ocean-atmosphere conditions; maximum depletion was observed during the tropical cyclones. The isotopic composition of rainwater seems to be controlled by the dynamical nature of the moisture rather than the individual rain events. Precipitation isotopes undergo systematic depletions in response to the organized convection occurring over a large area and are modulated by the integrated effect of convective activities. Precipitation isotopes appear to be linked with the monsoon intraseasonal variability in addition to synoptic scale fluctuations. During the early to mid monsoon the amount effect arose primarily due to rain re-evaporation but in the later phase it was driven by moisture convergence rather than evaporation. Amount effect had distinct characteristics in these two years, which appeared to be modulated by the intraseasonal variability of monsoon. It is shown that the variable nature of amount effect limits our ability to reconstruct the past-monsoon rainfall variability on annual to sub-annual time scale.

Difference in attenuation among Mn, As, and Fe in riverbed sediments

We report, for the first time, a detailed study at river water and hyporheic zone systems through collection and analyses of shallow sediments and selected source rocks, pore water, and river water from forty-two locations at the Chianan Plain (CP), SW Taiwan. The study was focused to understand the possible changes in the river water and sediment chemistry as a consequence of high arsenic (mean±SD=71.28±16.24μg/L, n=46) groundwater discharge to three major rivers in the plain. The study shows, except few locations, As concentration in river sediments corresponds to average As concentration in soil and upper crustal abundance and of source rock. Sequential extraction indicates that As is mostly bound to FeOOH. No enrichment of arsenic in river sediments or depletion of aqueous As and iron in pore water was observed down to the maximum sampling depth of 1.7m although manganese is enriched in sediments. Dissolved As concentrations in the river sediments are much lower compared to the hotspots in the CP aquifers. This suggests that no As attenuation processes are active or they cannot be detected in this zone. Mn precipitates at higher redox level compared to Fe and As and thus attenuates in the studied zone.

Monsoon climate response in Indian teak (Tectona grandis L.f.) along a transect from coast to inland

Indian monsoon (June–September) and post monsoon (October–November) rainfall show a distinct trend from coast to inland primarily due to moisture availability. However, the response of this synoptic-scale variation of rainfall amount to annual ring growth of Indian teak has not been studied systematically yet. The study is important as (1) ring width of Indian teak is considered as a reliable proxy for studying monsoon climate variability in multi-centennial time scale and (2) observed meteorological data show systematic changes in rainfall variation from coast to inland since last three decades. Towards this, we present here tree-ring width data from two locations—Thatibanda (1747–1979) and Nagzira (1728–2000) and use similar published data from two other locations—Allapalli (1866–1897) and Edugurapalli (1827–2000). The locations fall along a southeast northwest transect from south east Indian coast to inland. Monthly mean data from nearest observatories show an increasing trend in monsoon rainfall and a pronounced decreasing trend in post monsoon rainfall towards inland. Ring width data show moderately positive response to monsoon rainfall and negative response to summer (March–May) temperature for all stations suggesting moisture deficit in hot summer and intense precipitation in monsoon affect ring growth pattern in different ways. Ring width indices also exhibit significantly positive response with post monsoon rainfall at coastal location. The response gradually reduces towards inland. This preliminary study, thus, suggests that Indian teak has a potential to capture signals of the synoptic variation of post monsoon rainfall from coast to inland.