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Concentration Distribution and Toxicity of Heavy Metals in Surface Sediment of Poyang Lake, China

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Abstract

Poyang Lake is the largest freshwater lake in China and plays a significant role by supplying drinking water, enabling agriculture, and preventing floods. Random selection was implemented to obtain 36 samples of surface deposits to determine concentrations of Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Cr, and Ni across Poyang Lake. At all sampling locations, values of Ni and Cd were thought to be lower than the effect range low (ERL). Relatively, values of Cu, Pb, Cr, and Zn were classified as ERL-effect range median (ERM) in more than 30% of sampling locations. In general, the eastern areas of Poyang Lake near the inflow rivers, such as the Raohe, Xinjiang, and Fuhe rivers, had higher concentrations of heavy metals. These rivers are sources of substantial industrial wastewater, including a lot of heavy metals. In addition, higher toxicity of sediments was found in the eastern area of the lake by evaluating the sum of toxic units (ΣTU). Contributions of Pb and Cr to the sum of toxic units were higher than the other heavy metals. If the heavy metals were classified by contribution to toxic units in Poyang Lake in decreasing order, they would be listed as Cr, Ni, Cd, Zn, Cu, and Pb.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Fundamental Research Project for Science and Technology of China (No. 2014FY110400-01). We also thank the editors and anonymous reviewers for comments regarding the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Center of Lake Environment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing, 100012, China

    Yong Niu, Yuan Niu, Hui Yu, Xia Jiang & Xiaochun Guo

  2. College of Hydrology and Water Resources, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Yong Niu, Yong Pang & Xiangyang Xu

Authors
  1. Yong Niu
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  2. Yuan Niu
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  3. Hui Yu
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  4. Xia Jiang
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  5. Xiaochun Guo
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  6. Yong Pang
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  7. Xiangyang Xu
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Correspondence to Yuan Niu or Hui Yu.

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Niu, Y., Niu, Y., Yu, H. et al. Concentration Distribution and Toxicity of Heavy Metals in Surface Sediment of Poyang Lake, China. Wetlands 39 (Suppl 1), 55–62 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0904-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13157-017-0904-6

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