Spatio-temporal summer distribution of Cumberland Sound beluga whales (Delphinapterus leucas) in Clearwater Fiord

The Cumberland Sound (Nunavut, Canada) beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) population has been designated as threatened and updated biological information about summer distribution is required for a sound recovery plan. Variation in aerial survey counts are speculated to occur due to movement of belugas in and out of the fiord, and there is still uncertainty related to their distribution within key summer habitat. To address these knowledge gaps, non-invasive passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) systems were deployed in August of 2010 and 2011. An automated detector was used to determine presence/absence and quantify calls by recorder site. Results were verified by partial manual analysis of 20% of the files. The detector had a minimum accuracy of 85% for presence/absence and 42% for call quantification. Belugas were detected primarily at the uppermost site of Clearwater Fiord, with detections subsiding with increasing proximity to the fiord entrance. Diel variation in call patterns were quantified at two separate sites in different years, but no correlation was observed between tidal cycles and number of detections. This study indicates that Cumberland Sound beluga may prefer sites at the head of Clearwater Fiord. Further research is required to identify which environmental variables contribute to this observed summer distribution.

Seasonal Elevated and Variable Groundwater Iron in Chandrapur District, Central India

Groundwater iron concentrations were monitored from rural area of the Chandrapur district, Central India during winter, summer and post-monsoon at 36 sampling locations so as to map and quantify its levels. Grab sampling was carried out for groundwater sampling from dug wells (DW) (n=2, 5.55%) and hand pumps (HP) (n=34, 94.44%). Iron concentration was determined by acid digestion method and further analysis by using ICP-OES. Maximum iron concentration in winter was 47.100 mg/L (Ballarpur, HP), 3.825 mg/L (Ballarpur, HP) in summer and 3.714 mg/L (Visapur, HP) in post-monsoon. Average iron concentration in winter, summer, and post-monsoon was 3.522 mg/L, 0.730 mg/L and 0.582 mg/L respectively, which were above the acceptable limit of the Indian Standard (IS) and WHO aesthetic limit for iron (0.3 mg/L). Seasonal variation in groundwater iron concentration was observed in the order of winter>post-monsoon>summer. Distribution of iron with IS revealed a number of samples above the permissible limit and in the order of summer>winter>post-monsoon. In case of a distribution on WHO, JECFA and IOM recommendations, number of samples in high to very high category was in the order of winter>summer>post-monsoon. It can be concluded that seasonal elevated and variable groundwater iron concentration was observed from the study area. A number of samples had the concentration several times above the IS acceptable limit and WHO aesthetic cut-off. The plausible reasons for these observations can be assigned to geology, water source type (HP/DW), space and time, the proximity of water source to minerals and ores present in the earth crust, physicochemical characteristics of water and dissolution and leaching of metal in groundwater