Silicate Abundance and its Significance in the Hooghly-Matla Estuary, India (Invited)
Abstract
Sea water contains in suspension a wide spectrum of siliceous materials. The surface water abounds with organisms such as diatoms and radiolarians having skeletons composed of non-crystalline form of hydrated silica. A very high level of silicate (130-140 μM) noticed in the Bay of Bengal nearer the confluence of the rivers, where nutrient levels are appreciably higher during southwest monsoon period (March-October) in contrast to other seasons (CSMCRI, 2007). The relatively high (>5 µg) silicate values at the Ganges head (Bay of Bengal) is attributable to river runoff during the same period (CSMCRI, 2007). In general, the concentration of inorganic phosphate, nitrate and silicate increased in the direction of Antarctic Sea, particularly around 40° S latitude, in the proximity of sub-tropical convergence. In comparison to Atlantic and Pacific oceans, the concentration of nutrients in the Indian Ocean is almost twice (Venkataramana, 2007). The mean value of 102.9±43.2 μM for silicate in Hooghly estuary is found lower than worldwide average river water concentration of 147.8±93.6 μM (Gems, 2002). Seasonal variation of river runoff of silicate shows maximum value of 12.6×109 mol during monsoon; thereafter, its value decreased to 2.54 and 1.33×109 mol during post-monsoon and pre-monsoon, respectively. The net residual flows of 4.91, 1.47 and 0.5×109 mol and the exchange flux of 6.95, 0.94 and 0.51×109 mol is found at the estuary during monsoon, post-monsoon and pre-monsoon, respectively. The annual flux of silicate out of the estuary is estimated to be 15.28×109 mol (428×103 t), about 93% of the total fluvial flux. The non-conservative flux of silicate removed from the water column is found to be 1.12 × 109 mol (31.0×103 t), which is about 5% in the global scale (0.6×106 t year-1) (Tregguer et al.,1995). Nitrate, Phosphate and Silicate, have been studied in the Hooghly-Matla estuarine complex and compared with selected previous studies. It is observed that both nitrate and phosphate concentrations remained almost stable varied (between 19.28 and 19.4μM for DIN and between 1.61and 1.99μM for DRP) during the period between 1975 and 2001, but silicate shows a distinct increasing trend from 35.6 to 102.9μM (Nandy et al., 1983; NIO, 1986; Ghosh et al., 1992). These also conforms our study, with the concentration of silicate from 19.97 µ M to 72.73 µ M during pre-monsoon and 48.26 µ M to 103.19 µ M during the monsoon in the Hooghly-Matla estuarine complex. High concentrations of biogenic silica in tidal marshes are necessary for maximum benthic diatom production which in turn helps high secondary production of commercial fish and crustaceans (Courtney, 2007). The Gross Primary Productivity is found to be increased in three stations of these estuaries (27.32±5.06 mg/m3/ hr in 1990, 33.58±14 mg/m3/ hr in 2000 and 44.36±5.91 mg/m3/ hr in 2007) (Biswas et. al., 2009), with the increasing trend of silicate within this estuarine complex. The increasing trend of total catches in the Eastern and Western Indian Ocean (FAO, 1998), of which the Bay of Bengal is an important part (Islam, 2003), justify the interrelation. Thus, these findings are ascertaining the interrelation between the increasing trend of silicate concentration with the enhanced primary productivity, which in turn increase the fish yield in the Hooghly-Matla estuarine complex on the Bay of Bengal.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2010
- Bibcode:
- 2010AGUFM.B51I0463G
- Keywords:
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- 0439 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Ecosystems;
- structure and dynamics;
- 0470 BIOGEOSCIENCES / Nutrients and nutrient cycling