Environmental Earth Sciences

, Volume 59, Issue 8, pp 1781–1788 | Cite as

Heavy metal contamination of cultivated wetland soils along a typical plateau lake from southwest China

Original Article
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Abstract

Topsoil (0–20 cm) samples were collected from four cultivated wetlands including Northern and Western Fields (about 30-year tillage), and Southern and Western Fields (about 20-year tillage) along the Yilong Lake of China in October, 2005. Total concentrations of As, Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn were determined using the inductively coupled plasma atomic absorption spectrometry in order to assess contamination status in four sampling plots. Results showed that the average concentrations of these heavy metals in Northern and Western Fields were significantly (P < 0.01) higher than those in reference soils, while they were generally lower in Southern and Eastern Fields. All the mean concentrations of heavy metals were lower, except that the average concentrations of As and Cr in Northern Field slightly exceeded the soil quality guidelines. The contamination indices showed low-contamination levels for As, Cu, Pb, and Zn in Northern and Western Fields, while no contamination levels could be observed in Southern and Eastern Fields. As for Cr, they showed moderate-contamination levels in Northern Field, but low or no contamination levels in other three Fields. The integrated contamination index values indicated Northern and Western Fields were moderately contaminated, while Southern and Eastern Fields were less contaminated. The same contamination sources of these heavy metals were identified in these fields using factor- and cluster analysis.

Keywords

Cultivation Integrated contamination index Contamination levels Factor analysis Cluster analysis 
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Notes

Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by National Basic Research Program of China (No. 2006CB403301), National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 50879005 and U0833002) and the Emphasis Project Fund of National Eleven Five-Year Scientific and Technical Support Plans (No. 2006BAB04A08). We would like to thank two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and English improvement. We also express thanks to the analysis center of Beijing Normal University.

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag 2009

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of EnvironmentBeijing Normal UniversityBeijingPeople’s Republic of China
  2. 2.School of Forestry and Wildlife SciencesAuburn UniversityAuburnUSA

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