An Assessment of the Accumulation Potential of Pb, Zn and Cd by Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh. in Vamleshwar Mangroves, Gujarat, India

The study deals with the accumulation of Pb, Zn and Cd in an important mangrove species, Avicennia marina (Forssk.) Vierh., in the Vamleshwar mangrove ecosystem, near Narmada estuary, West coast of Gujarat, India with height differences of 0.5, 1.5, 2.5 meters and carried out under field conditions during October, 2009. The site was located on 21 °30´11.55´´ N latitude and 72°43´53.68´´ E longitude. Mangrove receives heavy metal pollution from upstream areas of Narmada estuary and highly populated settlements. However, little is known about the capacity of mangrove plants to take up and store heavy metals in them. Water, sediment and plant parts such as roots, stems and leaves were analyzed for finding the trace metal accumulation of different height groups by Inductive Coupled Plasma Analyser (ICPA). Amount of the content of metals found in the water, sediment and plant parts were in the order of Pb>Zn>Cd. The average contents of heavy metals in the waters were 57.83 mg l -1 for Pb, 3.89 83 mg l -1 for Zn and 0.42 mg l -1 for Cd. It was observed that the average contents of Pb (73.6 mg l -1 ), Zn (8.1 mg l -1 ) and Cd (0.73 mg l -1 ) in the sediments were below the critical soil concentrations. The concentrations of heavy metals in different parts of Avicennia marina were in the order Roots>stem>leaf except for Cd, but Cd found higher in leaf. The ranges of the content of heavy metals in plants were 18.5-102.2 mg l -1 for Pb, 3.5-19.5 mg l -1 for Zn and 0.2-4.1 mg l -1 for Cd. The concentrations of all heavy metals in Avicennia marina except Pb were falling within the normal range and were much more in the plants have the highest height. The present study has shown the potential of Avicennia marina as a phytoremediation species for selected heavy metals in many mangrove ecosystems.