Heavy Metals in the Fish Tenualosa ilisha Hamilton, 1822 in the Padma–Meghna River Confluence: Potential Risks to Public Health

Hilsa shad (Tenulosa ilisha) is Bangladesh’s most important single-species fishery that contributes to 11% of total catch and employment for millions of people. However, heavy metals (HMs) toxicity in the edible organs of T. ilisha and their plausible public health threats have received weak attention. To provide insights on this issue, we determined, using ICP-MS, the concentration of Zn, Cu, Cr (VI), Pb, and Cd in the edible organs of five different sizes of T. ilisha and the surface water collected from the Padma–Meghna River confluence, Chandpur (Bangladesh). Multivariate analysis indicated that T. ilisha gills and liver contained higher HMs than muscle, and the surface water was below the safety limits. The study revealed that only Cr crossed the safety limits and bioaccumulated in the smaller-sized gills and liver. To assess the public health risks, target hazard quotient (THQ), total THQ (TTHQ) and carcinogenic (CR) risks were calculated. Only Cr imposed non-carcinogenic risks to consumers, while TTHQ showed higher chronic health risks. There was no CR risk measured for consumers, except for the largest-sized gills for children. Randomly positive relations between HMs and sizes were found; whereas, consistently positive relations were found among the tissue types. The outcomes of our study may aid policymakers in managing pollutants, especially the Cr sources in the greater Chandpur regions.

Satellite remote sensing of the Oka-Volga confluence zone during the ice melting

<p>The river confluence is one of the most complex processes in river morphology, which plays an important role in riverbed deformation, mixing processes, pollution transport, etc. The area of river confluence can be often visually observed as the relatively thin transition region or mixing zone (MZ) separating two parallel weakly mixing flows. The mixing zone characteristics, in particular width, are important indicators of the turbulent mixing intensity and momentum and substance exchange between two flows, therefore, understanding the physical mechanisms affected on the mixing zone formation and manifestation is an important task in ecological remote monitoring. A typical example of a river confluence is the merging of the Volga and Oka rivers (Russia). In this work satellite radar and optical images of the Oka -Volga MZ during the active ice cover melting were analyzed. The mixing zone of rivers as the formation of wet snow at the initial stages of melting, which further contributes to the formation of open water patches in the area of rivers confluence zone is shown. Such manifestation of the mixing zone can be presumably associated with factories / thermal power plants emissions and turbulent mixing of river flows. An increase of the radar signal backscattering of wet snow was observed, and it can be associated with the predominance of surface scattering (an increase of affection of surface roughness) with an increase of snow and ice cover moisture. In conditions of positive average daily temperatures, intense ice melting led to the appearance of open water patches, which were partially covered with fragmented ice. Although the wind velocity during the observation period was about 3-5 m/s, which significantly exceeds the threshold of wind waves excitation, the latter, was rather weak, in particular, due to the wind wave damping on the water covered with the floes. This led to the manifestation of the MZ as an extended dark band, and also presumably caused weak radar backscattering after the ice opening of the Volga part.</p><p>The research was funded by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (Projects RFBR № 18-45-520004 and № 20-05-00561)</p>

Hydrodynamic aspects of large river confluence with different water densities

<p>River confluences are characterized by complex 3D changes in flow hydrodynamics and bed morphology and provide important ecological functions. The current literature on river confluences suggests that their hydrodynamics and morphodynamics are controlled by three aspects: (1) the geometry (planform and junction angle) of the confluence, (2) the momentum flux ratio of the tributaries and (3) the level of concordance between channel beds at the confluence entrance. However, the difference in water densities between the tributaries, and the associated stratification, potentially may impact on hydrodynamics and mixing as well, but such aspects has received less attention by far, and has not yet been subject to systematic investigation.</p><p>The objective of this study is to investigate hydrodynamics and mixing within the confluence zone of the Kama and Vishera rivers (Russia). During the warm period, the water densities in these rivers are similar due to the peculiarities of their hydrological basins. Hence density effects are negligible. However, in winter, the mineralization level of waters in the Vishera river significantly exceeds that in the Kama river. Even due to a significant decrease in the discharge of these rivers, the densimetric Froude number Fr is of the order of unity. This condition provided the motivation for investigating the effects of density differences on hydrodynamic and mixing at such river confluence.</p><p>The study of these effects was carried out on the basis of full-scale field measurements and numerical experiments in a full 3D formulation (i.e. with no hydrostatic approximation). Both the field measurements and the numerical results suggest that hydrodynamics processes at the confluence in the absence and in the presence of density stratification are fundamentally different.. At large densimetric Froude numbers (at small density differences) the waters of the Vishera and Kama rivers flow, practically without mixing, for several kilometers in the form of two parallel streams and at Fr of the order of unity, the more mineralized (more dense) waters of the Vishera river flow under the less dense waters of the Kama river leading to much more rapid mixing.</p><p>The reported study was funded by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) and Perm Krai (grant 20-45-596028) and by RFBR (grant 19-41-590013).</p>

Hidrogeomorfologia em confluência fluvial obtusa, Guarapuava, Paraná

Solid and liquid mixtures in river courses intensify in areas of river confluence, conditioned mainly by the angular opening of the junction. Knowledge of hydrosedimentological dynamics in bedrock junctions with different angular openings is essential for understanding morphological adjustment at confluences and for supporting actions for the preservation and conservation of river ecosystems. For this reason, this article presents the results of a hydrogeomorphologic study on a river confluence with an obtuse junction angle (>100º), in a plateau bedrock river, in the Serra Geral Formation. The research evaluated a fluvial segment upstream and downstream of the Pedras River and in the Pombas River tributary, in Guarapuava, Paraná, through observations and measurements of morphological and hydraulic characteristics, width, talweg depth, bed declivity and bankfull flow. Morphological adjustment in obtuse confluences is peculiar in that the fluvial junction angle conditions specific flow, erosion, sediment transport and deposition dynamics, mainly resulting from its association with the geological nature of the river bed and types of land use and management upstream of the confluence.

North Platte River-South Platte River Confluence Area Drainage System History as Determined by Topographic Map Interpretation: Western Nebraska, USA

Detailed topographic maps of the western Nebraska North Platte River-South Platte River confluence area show a low relief and gently sloping southeast-oriented upland surface, asymmetrical drainage divides, nearly adjacent and parallel east-oriented North and South Platte River valley segments, barbed tributaries, and shallow divide crossings (low points along drainage divides) in a region south of the Nebraska Sand Hills and at the Nebraska loess region’s western margin. Published interpretations of North and South Platte River confluence area landforms (referred to as the accepted paradigm) do not explain most drainage features and are compared with a new paradigm’s interpretations to determine which of the two paradigms explains the regional drainage history and related surface features in a simple and consistent manner. New paradigm interpretations require large sheets of slowly-moving southeast-oriented water to have flowed toward what was probably an actively eroding Republican River valley and to have shaped the upland surface while the Platte and North and South Platte River valleys eroded headward into and across the region so as to create the asymmetric drainage divides, barbed tributaries, and shallow divide crossings. These new paradigm interpretations are consistent with each other and with recently published new paradigm interpretations of upstream North and South Platte River drainage system history. New paradigm interpretations also suggest the adjacent Nebraska Sand Hills developed on a large flood deposited delta (typical of sand dune areas on former glacial lake deltas further to the north) and the slowly-moving sheets of water may have been responsible for some or all of Nebraska’s loess deposits, although the new paradigm leads to a fundamentally different middle and late Cenozoic regional geologic and glacial history than what workers using the accepted paradigm have described.