Inter-estuarine and seasonal to decadal variations of heavy metal pollution in the Gulf of Cambay, India

Toxic heavy metals adsorbed preferentially onto suspended sediments enter our food chain by bio-assimilation in coastal ocean organisms. To decipher metal pollution status in the Gulf of Cambay (food hub of India) under rising anthropogenic pressure, we present seasonal abundances of Ti, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb in > 150 samples of suspended sediments (> 0.45 µm) collected in four seasons (2016–2017) from two large estuaries (Narmada and Tapi). The suspended sediments of both the estuaries generally show low heavy metal pollution ( I geo