title: Organic and Inorganic Pollutant Concentrations Suggest Anthropogenic Contamination of Soils Along the Manali-Leh Highway, Northwestern Himalaya, India.
abstract: Most studies on roadside soil pollution have been performed in areas where petrol is the main fuel. Very little work has been conducted in regions where diesel predominates. We collected soil samples from four sites that span a precipitation gradient along the Manali-Leh Highway in northwestern Himalaya, India. This road traverses rough terrain and most of the vehicles that travel along it are diesel-driven. At each site, we collected samples at incremental distances from the highway (0, 2, 5, 10, 20, and 150 m), and at each distance we collected samples from three depths (3, 9, and 15 cm). We assessed the concentrations of 10 heavy metals (Al, Fe, Cr, Cu, Pb, Ni, Co, Zn, V, and Ba), total sulphur, and total organic carbon (TOC) at each distance, and we measured the concentration of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) at 2 m from the highway. Overall, we found that metal concentrations are low and there is no relationship between concentrations and distance from the highway, or depth within the soil profile. Sulphur concentrations, on the other hand, are high in roadside soils and there is a negative relationship between concentration and distance from the highway. PAH concentrations are low, but the proportion of different ringed species suggests that their source is anthropogenic. Correlations between TOC and the various pollutants further suggest that diesel vehicles and potentially biomass combustion are starting to affect the roadside environment in remote northwestern India. We suggest that pollutant concentrations be regularly monitored.
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, 500 Geology-Physics Building, 345 Clifton Court, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0013, USA.|Department of Geography, East Calcutta Girls' College, Kolkata, 700070, India.
authors.forename: Rajarshi
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Dasgupta
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, 500 Geology-Physics Building, 345 Clifton Court, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0013, USA. brooke.crowley@uc.edu.|Department of Anthropology, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH, USA. brooke.crowley@uc.edu.
authors.forename: Brooke E
authors.initials: BE
authors.lastname: Crowley
authors.affiliation: Department of Geology, University of Cincinnati, 500 Geology-Physics Building, 345 Clifton Court, Cincinnati, OH, 45221-0013, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Barry Maynard
mesh_terms: D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D004787:Environmental Pollution / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D007194:India; D019216:Metals, Heavy / Q000032:analysis; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D001335:Vehicle Emissions / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D019216:Metals, Heavy; D011084:Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D001335:Vehicle Emissions