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Spatial distribution and source apportionment of surface soil’s polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Yangtze River Delta

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Abstract

Soil acts as a crucial reservoir of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the environment, and its PAH content serves as a significant indicator of regional PAH pollution. Monitoring PAH levels in soil is important for assessing the potential risks to human and environmental health. In this study, 53 surface soil samples were collected from the Yangtze River Delta. These samples were monitored for 16 priority PAHs. Pollution levels, compositional profiles, and source differences of soil PAHs were analyzed among different regions, urban and rural areas, and functional zones. The total PAH content (Σ16PAHs) in the surface soil of the Yangtze River Delta was 2326.01 ± 2901.53 ng/g. High-ring PAHs (4–6 rings) accounted for the predominant portion (85.50%) of total PAHs. The average pollution level of soil PAHs in Jiangsu Province (2651.92 ± 3242.87 ng/g) was significantly higher than that of Zhejiang Province (2001.44 ± 2621.71 ng/g) and Shanghai (1669.13 ± 1758.34 ng/g), and high-ring PAHs constituted a predominant portion in these three regions. There was no significant difference in the PAH content between urban and rural areas. In different functional areas, automobile stations exhibited the highest PAH levels among the functional zones analyzed, with traffic emissions identified as a major source of soil PAH in this area. The primary factors influencing the distribution of soil PAHs in the study area were the duration of urbanization exposure (r = 0.753, p < 0.01) and soil organic carbon content (r = 0.452, p < 0.01). This provides novel evidence for the cumulative build-up of PAHs during urbanization. The positive matrix factorization model was used to analyze the sources of PAHs in the surface soil of the Yangtze River Delta, revealing that biomass and coal combustion (60.19%) and traffic emissions and coal combustion (31.82%) were the primary sources of PAHs in the region.

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Data availability

The datasets used in this study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China [42107385, 42377393 and 42007381], the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province [BK20200515], and the National Key Research and Development Program of China [2022YFC3105900].

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Hazards Forecasting, Ministry of Natural Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing , 210024, China

    Teng Wang, Rongze Liu, Dongxiang Liu & Yining Fang

  2. Jiangsu Province Engineering Research Center for Marine Bio-Resources Sustainable Utilization, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210024, China

    Teng Wang, Shenjie Chen, Rongze Liu, Dongxiang Liu & Yining Fang

  3. College of Oceanography, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210024, China

    Teng Wang, Shenjie Chen, Rongze Liu, Dongxiang Liu & Yining Fang

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  1. Teng Wang
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  2. Shenjie Chen
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Contributions

TW contributed to conceptualization, investigation, methodology, and writing—original draft. XC contributed to investigation, laboratory analysis and writing. RL were involved in methodology, investigation, data curation, and software. DL and YF contributed to investigation and laboratory analysis.

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Correspondence to Teng Wang.

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Wang, T., Chen, S., Liu, R. et al. Spatial distribution and source apportionment of surface soil’s polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the Yangtze River Delta. Environ Geochem Health 46, 3 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01806-2

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