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Single and combined metal contamination in coastal environments in China: current status and potential ecological risk evaluation

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Abstract

With the development of industrialization and urbanization, metal and metalloid pollution is one of the most serious environmental problems in China. Current contamination status of metals and metalloid and their potential ecological risks along China’s coasts were reviewed in the present paper by a comprehensive study on metal contents in marine waters and sediments in the past few decades. The priority metals/metalloid cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), chromium (Cr), lead (Pb), and arsenic (As), which were the target elements of the designated project “Comprehensive Prevention and Control of Heavy Metal Pollution” issued by the Chinese government in 2011, were selected considering their high toxicity, persistence, and prevalent existence in coastal environment. Commonly used environmental quality evaluation methods for single and combined metals were compared, and we accordingly suggest the comprehensive approach of joint utilization of the Enrichment Factor and Effect Range Median combined with Pollution Load Index and Mean Effect Range Median Quotient (EEPME); this battery of guidelines may provide consistent, internationally comparable, and accurate understanding of the environment pollution status of combined metals/metalloid and their potential ecological risk.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 41276104) and Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean (Grant No. 201505034-2, 20130543-4).

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Author notes

  1. Tingwan Zhang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Marine Environment and Ecology, Ministry of Education, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, People’s Republic of China

    Romana Manzoor, Tingwan Zhang, Xuejiao Zhang, Min Wang, Jin-Fen Pan, Zhumei Wang & Bo Zhang

  2. College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao, 266100, People’s Republic of China

    Jin-Fen Pan, Zhumei Wang & Bo Zhang

Authors
  1. Romana Manzoor
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  2. Tingwan Zhang
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  3. Xuejiao Zhang
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  4. Min Wang
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  5. Jin-Fen Pan
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  6. Zhumei Wang
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  7. Bo Zhang
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Correspondence to Min Wang or Jin-Fen Pan.

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Manzoor, R., Zhang, T., Zhang, X. et al. Single and combined metal contamination in coastal environments in China: current status and potential ecological risk evaluation. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 1044–1054 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0526-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-0526-9

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