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Assessment of trace element contamination in sediment cores from the Pearl River and estuary, South China: geochemical and multivariate analysis approaches

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Abstract

Twenty-four major and trace elements and the mineralogical composition of four sediment cores along the Pearl River and estuary were analyzed using ICP-AES, ICP-MS, and X-ray diffraction (XRD) to evaluate contamination levels. The dominant minerals were quartz, kaolinite, and illite, followed by montmorillonite and feldspars, while small amounts of halite and calcite were also observed in a few samples. Cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) were performed to identify the element sources. The highest metal concentrations were found at Huangpu, primarily due to wastewater treatment plant discharge and/or the surreptitious dumping of sludge, and these data differed from those of other sources. Excluding the data from Huangpu, the PCA showed that most elements could be considered as lithogenic; few elements are the combination of lithogenic and anthropogenic sources. An antagonistic relationship between the anthropogenic source metals (K, Ba, Zn, Pb, Cd, Ag, Tl, and U) and marine source metals (Na, Mg, Ti, V, and Ca) was observed. The resulting normalized Al enrichment factor (EF) indicated very high or significant pollution of Cd, Ag, Cu, Zn, Mo, and Pb at Huangpu, which may cause serious environmental effects. Conflicting results between the PCA and EF can be attributed to the background values used, indicating that background values must be selected carefully.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 40903047) and Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. KZZD-EW-09-2). The authors thank Derong Zhang for the sample collection and Ying Liu, Xueping Liu, and Jingming Wei for the major and trace elements and XRD analyses. The authors are also grateful to the anonymous reviewers for the upgradation of the manuscript. This is contribution No. IS-1936 from GIGCAS.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key laboratory of Mineralogy and Metallogeny, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

    Yongqiang Yang, Zhuli Liu, Fanrong Chen, Shijun Wu, Mingliang Kang & Jie Li

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Zhuli Liu & Jie Li

  3. CAS Key Laboratory of Tropical Marine Bio-resources and Ecology, South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510301, China

    Ling Zhang

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  1. Yongqiang Yang
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  2. Zhuli Liu
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  3. Fanrong Chen
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  4. Shijun Wu
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  5. Ling Zhang
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  6. Mingliang Kang
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Correspondence to Fanrong Chen.

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Yang, Y., Liu, Z., Chen, F. et al. Assessment of trace element contamination in sediment cores from the Pearl River and estuary, South China: geochemical and multivariate analysis approaches. Environ Monit Assess 186, 8089–8107 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-014-3989-x

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