Abstract
Mining is considered to be one of the most significant sources of environmental pollution with regard to heavy metals. Mineral mining causes large quantities of mercury, cadmium, and other elements to be released into the environment and naturally poses a serious threat to environment. This paper will analyze the pollution status of agricultural soil caused by the mining of heavy metals in various mining areas in the Xunyang County in the Shaanxi Province of China, an area in famous for its resource mining. Equally, it will look at the potential ecological risk assessment process that is used to analyze the ecological risks of mining heavy metals in agricultural soil located in the surrounding areas. Based on the soil investigation, As pose a moderate ecological risk on the Au mining area. In addition, the Hg metals pose a significantly high potential ecological risk and Cd metals pose a considerable potential ecological risk on the Hg mining area. In the Pb–Zn mining area, a significantly high potential ecological risk was mainly posed by Cd. These results suggest that many heavy metals pose a high potential ecological risk on the agricultural soil in these three mining areas in the Xunyang County, and may cause elevated heavy metal contents in crops, eventually jeopardizing the health of local residents who consume food grown in polluted soil.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Ao M et al (2017) The influence of atmospheric Hg on Hg contaminations in rice and paddy soil in the Xunyang Hg mining district, China. Chin J Geochem 36:181–189
Cao HC, Luan ZQ, Wang JD, Zhang XL (2009) Potential ecological risk of cadmium, lead and arsenic in agricultural black soil in Jilin Province. China Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 23:57–64
Chen YY, Wang J, Gao W, Sun XJ, Xu SY (2012) Comprehensive analysis of heavy metals in soils from Baoshan District, Shanghai: a heavily industrialized area in China. Environ Earth Sci 67:2331–2343
Díaz RO, Fonticiella MD, Arado López JO, Borrell Muñoz JL, D’Alessandro RK, López PN (2013) Spatial distribution and contamination assessment of heavy metals in urban topsoils from Las Tunas City, Cuba. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 91:29–35
Du P, Xie Y, Wang S, Zhao H, Zhang Z, Wu B, Li F (2015) Potential sources of and ecological risks from heavy metals in agricultural soils, Daye City, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res Int 22:3498–3507
Duan Q, Lee J, Liu Y, Chen H, Hu H (2016) Distribution of heavy metal pollution in surface soil samples in China: a graphical review. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 97:303–309
Gao H, Bai J, Xiao R, Liu P, Jiang W, Wang J (2013) Levels, sources and risk assessment of trace elements in wetland soils of a typical shallow freshwater lake, China. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 27:275–284
Gong Q, Deng J, Xiang Y, Wang Q, Yang L (2008) Calculating pollution indices by heavy metals in ecological geochemistry assessment and a case study in parks of Beijing. J Earth Sci 19:230–241
Guillén MT, Delgado J, Albanese S, Nieto JM, Lima A, Vivo BD (2012) Heavy metals fractionation and multivariate statistical techniques to evaluate the environmental risk in soils of Huelva Township (SW Iberian Peninsula). J Geochem Explor 119–120:32–43
Hakanson L (1980) An ecological risk index for aquatic pollution control: a sedimentological approach. Water Res 14:975–1001
Huang SH (2014) Fractional distribution and risk assessment of heavy metal contaminated soil in vicinity of a lead/zinc mine. Trans Nonferrous Met Soc China 24:3324–3331
Izah SC, Bassey SE, Ohimain EI (2017) Assessment of pollution load indices of heavy metals in cassava mill effluents contaminated soil: a case study of small-scale processors in a rural community in the Niger Delta, Nigeria
Lei L, Liang D, Yu D, Chen Y, Song W, Li J (2015) Human health risk assessment of heavy metals in the irrigated area of Jinghui, Shaanxi, China, in terms of wheat flour consumption. Environ Monit Assess 187:647
Li Z, Ma Z, van der Kuijp TJ, Yuan Z, Huang L (2014) A review of soil heavy metal pollution from mines in China: pollution and health risk assessment. Sci Total Environ 468–469:843–853
Liao GL, Liao DX, Quan-Ming LI (2008) Heavy metals contamination characteristics in soil of different mining activity zones. Trans Nonferrous Met Soc China 18:207–211
Lin C, He M, Zhou Y, Guo W, Yang Z (2008) Distribution and contamination assessment of heavy metals in sediment of the Second Songhua River, China. Environ Monit Assess 137:329
Liu H, Probst A, Liao B (2005) Metal contamination of soils and crops affected by the Chenzhou lead/zinc mine spill (Hunan, China). Sci Total Environ 339:153–166
Lu S, Wang Y, Teng Y, Yu X (2015) Heavy metal pollution and ecological risk assessment of the paddy soils near a zinc-lead mining area in Hunan. Environ Monit Assess 187:627
Mirzaei R, Ghorbani H, Moghaddas NH, Martín JAR (2014) Ecological risk of heavy metal hotspots in topsoils in the Province of Golestan, Iran. J Geochem Explor 147:268–276
Qiu G, Feng X, Meng B, Sommar J, Gu C (2012a) Environmental geochemistry of an active Hg mine in Xunyang, Shaanxi Province, China. Appl Geochem 27:2280–2288
Qiu G, Feng X, Meng B, Wang X (2012b) Methylmercury in rice (Oryza sativa L.) grown from the Xunyang Hg mining area, Shaanxi province, northwestern China. Pure Appl Chem 84:281–289
Ran X, Shuang W, Li R, Wang JJ, Zhang Z (2017) Soil heavy metal contamination and health risks associated with artisanal gold mining in Tongguan, Shaanxi, China. Ecotoxicol Environ Saf 141:17–24
Shou Z, Feng C, Yang Y, Niu J, Shen Z (2012) Risk assessment of sedimentary metals in the Yangtze Estuary: new evidence of the relationships between two typical index methods. J Hazard Mater 241–242:164–172
Tang B, Zhao X (2015) Analysis of the influence of heavy metal pollution in the Pb–Zn mining area on environment ecology. Metall Min Ind 8:86–93
Xu Y, Xue L, Wang Q, Peng Y (2014) Features of heavy metal pollution of the soil surrounding the lead and zinc plant and assessment of ecological risk in western guanzhong. Environ Protect Sci 40:110–126 (in Chinese)
Yao-Guo WU, You-Ning XU, Zhang JH, Si-Hai HU (2010) Evaluation of ecological risk and primary empirical research on heavy metals in polluted soil over Xiaoqinling gold mining region, Shaanxi, China. Trans Nonferrous Met Soc China 20:688–694
Yi Y, Yang Z, Zhang S (2011) Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in sediment and human health risk assessment of heavy metals in fishes in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River basin. Environ Pollut 159:2575–2585
Zhang X, Yang L, Li Y, Li H, Wang W, Ye B (2012) Impacts of lead/zinc mining and smelting on the environment and human health in China. Environ Monit Assess 184:2261
Zhang HM, Zhang H, Song AM, Qin JQ, Song MW (2013) Evaluation of ecological risk on soil heavy metals pollution of Qingyuan. Adv Mater Res 610–613:928–931
Zhu HN et al (2012) Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in sediments of Xiawan Port based on modified potential ecological risk index. Trans Nonferrous Met Soc China 22:1470–1477
Zhuang P, Zou B, Li NY, Li ZA (2009) Heavy metal contamination in soils and food crops around Dabaoshan mine in Guangdong, China: implication for human health. Environ Geochem Health 31:707–715
Acknowledgements
Financial support was provided by the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central University (No. 300102278503).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zhu, D., Wei, Y., Zhao, Y. et al. Heavy Metal Pollution and Ecological Risk Assessment of the Agriculture Soil in Xunyang Mining Area, Shaanxi Province, Northwestern China. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 101, 178–184 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-018-2374-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-018-2374-9