Abstract
Surface and profile Phaeozem soil samples from 31 locations affected by various anthropogenic activities such as mining, chemical manufacturing, traffic emission and pesticide application were collected in Heilongjiang Province and Jilin Province, northeast China. The range of total concentrations of four heavy metals Cd, Pb, Cu and Zn in the soil was 0.011–3.137, 10.31–62.34, 9.74–51.21 and 39.54–247.59 mg kg−1, respectively, determined using the acidic digestion procedure. Four methods including single contamination evaluation, background concentration comparison, surface/subsurface concentration comparison and exchangeable fraction evaluation were used to evaluate the extent of metal contamination in Phaeozem. The results indicated that different activities increased the concentrations of the heavy metals in surface soils, where high concentrations of cadmium and lead were found close to chemical plants and in the suburbs of the investigated cities. The four methods showed a general trend of increased soil contamination with heavy metals. Cadmium was of the most concern compared with the other contaminated elements in the study area, due to the long-term phosphatic fertilizer utilization and industrial activities. The proper evaluation method for cadmium contamination was the background concentration comparison, while for zinc and copper was the single contaminative index evaluation. Cadmium and lead could be the potential environmental risk in the Phaeozem area based on the different evaluations.
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Acknowledgements
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China as a project for “Distinguished Young Scholars” (approval No. 20225722) and by the Ministry of␣Science and Technology, People’s Republic of␣China as a 973 project (approval No. 2004CB418503). The authors would like to thank Ms Xin Wang, Ms Liping Ren and other helpers in the Key Laboratory of Terrestrial Ecological Process, Chinese Academy of Sciences.
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Guo, G., Zhou, Q. Evaluation of heavy metal contamination in Phaeozem of northeast China. Environ Geochem Health 28, 331–340 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-005-9002-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-005-9002-4