Seasonal Variations in Physico- chemical Parameters of the Sediment of Thengapatnam Estuary, South-coastal Region of India

The tremendous biodiversity and ecological processes that depend on freshwater and marine environments are essential to human survival. The physicochemical parameters in both surface waters and sediments are important to understand estuarine dynamics. The present study was carried out to determine how the seasonal variation will affect the physicochemical parameters of sediments of five stations in Thengapatnam estuary. Sediment samples were collected for a period of one year from June 2014-May 2015 from five different sampling stations. The parameters such as pH, temperature, Nitrogen, Phosphorous, Potassium, Copper, Zinc, Iron and Manganese were analysed using standard procedures. The result expose that, soil sediment have high amount of potassium in all five stations. Sediment temperature varied from 25.7- 30.1°C. Hydrogen ion concentration ranged between 6.9 to 8.3, concentrations of nutrients viz. nitrate (2.4 – 6.4 mg/100g), phosphate (1.5 - 15.25 mg/100g) potassium (138 – 560 ppm) and concentration of metals like iron, zinc and manganese were found to be higher during monsoon season and lower during premonsoon seasons The overall findings highlight the need for a scientific solution to reduce the use of harmful chemicals and heavy metal contamination from the river system in order to preserve the biodiversity of freshwater and marine ecosystems.