Lakes: Water and Sediment Geochemistry

The present book aims in discussing water and sediment geochemistry of lakes in the background of natural processes in respect of Indian lakes, the information and data in respect of these are lacking which may be of interest to limnologists, geochemists and scientists in other disciplines such as zoologists, botanists, forestry etc. Moreover, sediment geochemistry of lakes has perhaps not received much attention of the scientists and hence no recent published account is available. In view of this, a chapter on sediment chemistry with examples of investigated areas and data are included in this book. All examples discussed in this book are based on original data of the author who has been working since more than a decade and a half in this field. Most of the lakes investigated by him are from the Himalaya and some are from Rajasthan, Udaipur, and these are fresh water lakes. Data on coastal lakes could not be obtained hence not incorporated in this book. The Himalayan lakes are important because they are located at different altitudes which involves variation in climate and population. Some of these lakes, therefore, have very less anthropogenic interference and maintain their pristine character. The chemistry of such lakes, therefore, presents a real picture on natural processes that have occurred during the life of the lake system.
In order to make water and sediment geochemistry of lakes understandable, first few chapters of this book are devoted to general principles and chemical reactions etc. which are related to lake dynamics described by other authors and taken from them. The later chapters deal with examples of specific lakes encompassing original data on water and sediment geochemistry of lakes and their possible source. The last chapter introduces bio-geochemistry as an important tool for reconstruction of paleoclimate on the basis of lake sediment study and few examples of Himalayan lakes are cited. The book, it is hoped, will be useful to the students who have elementary knowledge of science as well as to limnologists, sedimentary geochemists, environmental geochemists, engineers, researchers and government organizations including fisheries.