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Influence of Soil Organic Carbon, Water Holding Capacity, and Moisture Content on Heavy Metals in Rice Paddy Soils of Western Ghats of India

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Abstract

Analysis of soil samples collected from 16 rice paddy fields located in the Western Ghats region was performed to quantify the concentration of Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, Ni, Cr, Cd, and Pb using atomic absorption spectroscopy. High concentrations of these heavy metals were found in rice paddy fields regularly cultivated using agrochemicals. We compared this concentration with soils of rice paddy field that was not under cultivation. Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Cd showed increases of 1.2, 1.3, 2.3, 2.2, 1.8, 2.8, 1.8, and 8.5 times, respectively, in the rice paddy fields cultivated with synthetic fertilizers such as NPK, urea, potash, diammonium phosphate, etc., and several categories of pesticides belonging to the class organophosphates, carbamates, and acetanilide herbicide. In contaminated sites, the heavy metals exhibited maximum correlation with soil moisture content (SMC) (Zn, Fe, Cr, Ni, and Cd), soil organic content (SOC) (Fe, Cr, Ni, and Cd), and water holding capacity (WHC) (Cu, Pb, and Cd) than those observed for the reference site. The principal component analysis (PCA) revealed a total of 77.944% variance of heavy metals contributed from WHC (40.259%), SMC (20.854%), and SOC (16.832%). This indicates the build-up of heavy metals in rice paddy soils under the strong influence of moisture content, water holding capacity, and organic carbon content of the soil.

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Data Availability

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was carried out as a part of Ph.D programme of Ranjana Ramesha Hegade. She is thankful to Kuvempu University for the Scholarship (No. KU: BCM-3/2019-20/109, dt 09-07-2019). The authors are thankful to the farmers who permitted to visit their cropland and to collect the soil samples during the study. The authors are also thankful to two anonymous reviewers whose suggestions and comments have improved the quality of the manuscript.

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  1. Department of Post Graduate Studies & Research in Environmental Science, Kuvempu University, Jnana Sahyadri, Shankaraghatta, 577 451, Shivamogga Dist., Karnataka, India

    Ranjana Ramesha Hegade, Masarooru Veerabhadrappa Chethanakumara & Sannanegunda Venkatarama Bhatta Krishnamurthy

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  1. Ranjana Ramesha Hegade
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. Field work, data collection, formal analysis, investigation, and writing the draft were performed by Ranjana R. H. Field work, formal analysis, investigation, review, and editing were performed by M. V. Chethana Kumara. Conceptualization, methodology, software, validation, formal analysis, resources, data curation, review and editing, visualization, and supervision were performed by S. V. Krishnamurthy. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Hegade, R.R., Chethanakumara, M.V. & Krishnamurthy, S.V.B. Influence of Soil Organic Carbon, Water Holding Capacity, and Moisture Content on Heavy Metals in Rice Paddy Soils of Western Ghats of India. Water Air Soil Pollut 234, 192 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11270-023-06186-y

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