Environmental Impact Assessment of Sediment Quality Analysis of Bhavanapadu Mangrove Ecosystem, East Coast of India

The present study was carried out the tidal effects in the sediment of Bhavanapadu mangrove forest, East Coast of India. On the whole, parameters showed high value at high tide compared to low tide. Factor-cluster analysis was adopted to allow the identification of controlling factors at high and low tides. Factor analysis extracted six controlling factors at high tide and seven controlling factors at low tide. Cluster analysis extracted two (Stations) district clusters at high and low tides. The study showed that factor-cluster analysis application is a useful tool to single out the controlling factors at high and low tides. This will provide a basis for describing the tidal effects in the mangrove sediment. The salinity and electrical conductivity clusters as well as component loadings at high and low tide explained the tidal process where there is high contribution of seawater to mangrove sediments that controls the sediment chemistry. The geoaccumulation index (Igeo) values suggest the mangrove sediments are having background concentrations for Al, Cu, Fe, and Zn and unpolluted for Pb.