Flow of
chemical energy in Alwar jheel
of Yamuna basin near Allahabad
Amit Kumar and Geeta Watal
Department of Chemistry, University of Allahabad,
Allahabad – 211 002, India
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(Received: 16 October, 2004 ;
Accepted: 7 April, 2005)
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Abstract:
The water quality, rate of energy transformation, chemical composition of
producers and flow of chemical energy were studied in both feeding river Yamuna and Alwar jheel near Allahabad. As the river Yamuna
had high value of alkalinity (210.0 mgl-1), conductance (518.0 mmhos), dissolved solids (260.0 mgl-1),
hardness (162.0 mgl-1) and chloride (54.6 mgl-1) jheel also showed high values of these parameters. The rate
of energy transformation from kinetic radiant energy to chemical energy was
very high in the jheel 32,315 Cal
m-2 day-1 of which 25,620 Cal m-2day-1 was
contributed by aquatic plants. Out of 11,764 x 104 Kcal ha-1
yr-1 total energy fixed in the system, producers stored 7,154 x 104 Kcal
ha-1 yr-1 and the rest was lost as heat of respiration.
The pattern of storage of energy was different in two groups of producers and
thus most of the energy fixed by phytoplankton was stored as protein (56.2%)
and less as carbohydrate (11.7%) while aquatic plants stored more energy as
carbohydrate (40.8%) than protein (23.2%). The chemical energy obtained from
the system was 1,85,000 Kcal ha-1 yr-1 and thus only
0.260% of the chemical energy stored by producers was harvested. The potential
chemical energy resource in the jheel was 81.4 x 104
Kcal ha-1 yr-1 of
which only 22.6% was harvested in the jheel
and there is enough scope for further enhancement.
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Key words: Environmental degradation,
Chemical composition, Energy transformation, Photosynthetic efficiency.
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