Antimony,Biogeochemistry, Sundarban,

Journal of Environmental Protections, 2011, 2, **-** doi:10.4236/jep.2011.***** Published Online August 2011 (http://www.SciRP.org/journal/jep) Copyright © 2011 SciRes. JEP 1

 Distribution of Antimony in a Tropical Estuary Dominated by Mangroves

Sanjay K. Mandal, Natasha Majumder, Chumki Chowdhury, Raghab Ray, Manab K. Dutta, Tapan K. Jana

Department of Marine Science, Calcutta University, Kolkata, India.

Email: tkjana@hotmail.com

Received **************2011.

ABSTRACT

Seasonal variation of antimony was studied in order to characterize its distribution in estuarine water, pore water, sediment, and digenetic behavior in the Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem. The mean concentration of dissolved inor- ganic Sb ranged between 230.8 and 303.1 ng·L–1 over the period of study with a minimum during the post-monsoon closely associated with spring diatom bloom. Molecular diffusion flux of Sb was found greater than its value advected and deposited on sediment-water interface and there was significant remobilization of Sb in the Sundarbans mangrove ecosystem.