SEASONAL VARIATION OF TRACE AND HEAVY METALS IN VEGETABLE PLANTS AROUND TUMMALAPALLE URANIUM MINING SITE

摘要

This study has investigated the source and magnitude of trace and heavy metal contamination of various kinds of vegetable plants in the close vicinity of the uranium mining area during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon seasons.All vegetable samples were collected from the selective agricultural fields and analyzed by Inductive Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectroscopy (ICP-OES).The mean concentrations of trace and heavy metals in vegetable plants were found to be in the range of 0.01-0.24 49.27-56.41, 0.028-4.65##0.72-6.29##35.05-73.47##12.44-19.61##0.014-0.068##0.029-0.18##2.081-7.52##0.022-0.28##0.01-3.01, 0-0.008 B, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, P, Zn, Pb, and Se in pre-monsoon season.During the post-monsoon season 0.14-1.09 ,45.64-57, 0.45-3.54, 37.33-62.44, 67.73-89.3##12.45-23.32, 0.65-4.87, 0.53-2.96, 21.65-28.3, 0.35-1.12, 0.028-0.61, 0.013-0.097 B, Ca, Cu, Fe, K, Mg, Mn, Mo, P, Zn, Pb and Se found in plants.The trace and heavy metals were observed in the field and compared with the literature values and some guidelines.The trace and heavy elemental data were analyzed through statistical tools to examine the interrelationship among the investigated trace and heavy elements and possible source identification of the trace metal contamination in vegetable plants.