IAPRS & SIS, Vol.34, Part 7, *Resource and Environmental Monitoring", Hyderabad, India, 2002 
  
  
General trends of zinc accumulation in various parts of plants 
were in the following order: bud » seed » root » leaf » stem. 
This types of metal accumulation reflect general free flow of 
metals and final accumulation in the bud and seed. 
The high concentration of iron is due to natural sources, besides 
contribution from floating old, rusty and stranded barges, 
which form another important cause for Fe contamination in 
the ambient medium. Materials in the barges release 
particulate Fe that settles down in the bottom sediment. Fe 
oxide can also scavenge other metals like Cu and Zn as they 
pass through water enroute to the sediments (Waddichuk et al., 
1984). Another established fact for higher Fe concentration is 
that, this metal is essential for plant's growth in general 
(Goldberg, 1952). 
At station 2, it was recorded that Fe concentration was higher 
in Rhizophora stem than Avicennia stem. The present result 
was comparable with those of “Mc.Millan and Scholander 
(1968). They have reported that the ultrafiltration mechanism 
is well developed in Rhizophora, than in Avicennia, so the 
Rhizophora plants absorb more metals than Avicennia. High 
leaf iron concentration in all stations is in agreement with the 
studies of Mc Millan (1974) and Gulati er a., (1979). 
Copper concentration was recorded very low in all three 
stations. This might be due to the fact that there is no natural 
sources of this metal. Only anthropogenic sources and river 
runoff from other polluted areas may be the possible sources of 
this low level contamination. 
In the present study samples were collected from only three 
stations in three characteristic areas, which are not adequate to 
'draw any conclusion regarding level of pollution in the forest 
but after plotting the results in GIS map, a overall picture can 
be made on the distribution of the metals in the vast remote 
forest like Sundarbans. 
CONCLUSIONS 
General trend of accumulation of metals in the two mangrove 
plants is in the order Fe » Zn » Cu. This observation is similar 
to those of Mitra et al., (1994) and Peng et al., (1997). 
The study suggests that the core area of Subdarbans is 
unpolluted in terms of heavy metals. The high concentration of 
metals in the fringe area is due to industrial and domestic 
effluents. The concentration of metals reduces considerably in 
the buffer zone and is not passed on to the core area. 
REFERENCES 
Anon, 1987, Status Report, Ministry of Environment and 
Forest, Government of India. 
Clark, M.W., Mc. Conchie, D., Saengar, P., 
Pillsworth, M., 1997. Hydrological control on copper, 
cadmium, lead and zinc contamination in an anthropogenically 
polluted mangrove ecosystem. Wynnum, Brisbane, Australia 
center for Coastal Management, Southern Cross Univ., 
Lismore, New South Walse, Australia. 
Fiala, K., and Hernandez, L, 1993. Root biomass of a 
mangrove forest in southern Cuba (Majana). Inst. Syst. And 
Ecol. Biol, Czech. Acad. Sci. Kennicova 42,60200 Brno, 
Czech. Rep. Ekologia.-Bratisl, - Ecology Bratisl., 12 (1):15-30. 
Goldberg, E.D., 1952. Iron assimilation by marine diatoms. 
Biol. Bull., 102, pp. 243-248. 
Gulati, K.L., Nagpaul K.K., and Sayeedam., 1979. U.B.N.P. 
and K. in leaves of mangrove. Mahasagar, 12, pp. 183-186. 
Mc. Millan, C., 1974. Salt tolerant mangroves and submerged 
aquatic plants. Ecology and halophytes, Edited by R.J. Reimold 
and H. Queen, Academic Press, pp. 379-392. 
Mitra, A. and Chaudhury, A., 1993. Trace metals in 
macrobenthic mollusks of the Hooghly estuary, India. Marine 
Pollution Bulletin, 26, pp. 521-522. 
Mitra, A., Chaudhury, A., and Basu, D., 1994. Trace metal ion 
concentration in vegetative parts of /pomea pescarpes. Indian 
Journal of Environmental Health, 36 (2), pp. 119-123. 
Peng Lin, Wenjian Zheng, Zhenji Li., 1997. Distribution and 
accumulation of heavy metals in Avicennia marina community. 
J. Environ. Sci, 9(4):472-479. 
Scholander, P.F., 1968. How mangrove desalinate water 
physiologic plantanum. 21, pp. 251-261. 
Waddichuk, M., 1984. Biological availability of metals in 
marine environment. Mar. Pollute. Bull., pp. 16,17 
Walting, R.J., 1981. A manual of methods for use in the 
Southern African Marine Pollution Monitoring Program. South 
African National Scientific Programme report No. 44:82 p. 
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 
Authors gratefully acknowledge the help rendered by the 
Director, CAS in Marine Biology, Annamalai University, for 
providing facilities for analyzing heavy metals, ICMAM-PD for 
supplying satellite data and extending software facility to make 
satellite derived maps and Dr.P.V.Sreenivasan, Principal 
Scientist, CMFRI, for giving valuable suggestion and correction 
of the manuscript. 
448