RESEARCH ARTICLE Spatial distribution and potential biological risk of some metals in relation to granulometric content in core sediments from Chilika Lake, India Saroja K. Barik 1 & Pradipta R. Muduli 2 & Bita Mohanty 2 & Prasanta Rath 1 & Srikanta Samanta 3 Received: 18 June 2017 /Accepted: 4 October 2017 # Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017 Abstract The article presents first systematic report on the concentration of selected major elements [iron (Fe) and man- ganese (Mn)] and minor elements [zinc (Zn), copper (Cu), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), nickel (Ni), and cobalt (Co)] from the core sediment of Chilika Lake, India. The analyzed samples revealed higher content of Pb than the background levels in the entire study area. The extent of contamination from minor and major elements is expressed by assessing (i) the metal enrich- ments in the sediment through the calculations of anthropogen- ic factor (AF), pollution load index (PLI), Enrichment factor (EF), and geoaccumulation index (Igeo) and (ii) potential bio- logical risks by the use of sediment quality guidelines like effect range median (ERM) and effect range low (ERL) bench- marks. The estimated indices indicated that sediment is enriched with Pb, Ni, Cr, Cu and Co. The enrichment of these elements seems to be due to the fine granulometric character- istics of the sediment with Fe and Mn oxyhydroxides being the main metal carriers and fishing boats using low grade paints, fuel, and fishing technology using lead beads fixed to fishing nets. Trace element input to the Chilika lake needs to be mon- itored with due emphasis on Cr and Pb contaminations since the ERM and ERL benchmarks indicated potential biological risk with these metals. Keywords Minor and major elements . Granulometric . Core sediments . Potential biological risk . Anthropogenic factors . Chilika lake Introduction The quality of natural system may degrade with the anthropo- genic impacts resulting from input of municipal waste, agri- cultural runoff, catchment runoff, and industrial effluents (Filho et al. 2011; Zohra and Ayadi 2016; Sarkar et al. 2017). The pollutants like trace metals, pesticides, and toxic substances, during its passage with flowing water, may be accumulated on the suspended particles and deposited on the sediment surfaces or may be transported along with flowing water, ultimately to the sea (Algarsamy 2009; Asa et al. 2013; Jamshidi-Zanjani and Saeedi 2017). A significant increase in trace metal contaminations in rivers, estuaries, and lakes has been reported in different countries, and one of the goals of environmental chemists is to understand the concentration and distribution of trace metals in aquatic systems (Unnikrishnan and Nair 2004). The natural processes (like weathering and erosion, geological changes) and/or anthropogenic processes (land reclamation, etc.) are responsible for the mobilization of metals (Chen et al. 2007; Veerasingam et al. 2014; Olutona et al. 2016). In aquatic environments, in most of the cases, sediment is the ultimate sink for metals. The removal and deposition process of metals occur with physical, chemical, and biological processes taking place at the interface of sedi- ment and water column (Saeedi and Jamshidi-Zanjani 2015; Salem and Ayadi 2016; Ningjing et al. 2017). The erosion process of intertidal areas rapidly increases due to rise in eu- static sea level (Read 1995), increasing the redistribution of older polluted sediment, etc. Hence, even after cease of efflu- ent discharge, the intertidal environment may act as an Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues * Saroja K. Barik bariksaroj@yahoo.co.in 1 Department of Chemistry, School of Applied Sciences, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar, Odisha 751024, India 2 Wetland Research and Training Centre, Chilika Development Authority, Barkul, Balugaon, Odisha 752030, India 3 ICAR-Central Inland Fisheries Research Institute, Barrackpore, Kolkata 700120, India Environ Sci Pollut Res https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0421-4