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Pollution Characteristics and Associated Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Farmland Soils From a Typical County of Hubei Province, Central China

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Abstract

Knowledge from the negative impacts of the counties’ anthropogenic activities on soil pollution was of great significance in China, and valuable information was urgently needed for the control and remediation of soil pollution. The current pollution levels of heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, Ni, and Cr) in farmland soils were investigated in Yangxin County, Hubei Province, central China. The comprehensive results of quantitative comparison and evaluation in this study showed that Cu (144.9 ± 298.6 mg kg−1), Cd (2.9 ± 1.6 mg kg−1), and Ni (137.0 ± 111.0 mg kg−1) posed higher pollution risks to public and ecosystem health, which were higher than the corresponding soil background values. The combined results of geostatistics, spatial and statistical analysis indicated that studied heavy metals were mainly attributed to agricultural, traffic and industrial induced pollution. Overall, urgent attention should be paid to the risk reduction and management of soil Cu, Cd, and Ni pollution in the study area.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Foundation of State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology (No. SKLLQG1935), the Key Program of Hubei Polytechnic University (No. 19XJK01Z), the Young Talents Project of Science and Technology Research Program of Hubei Education Department (No. Q20204503), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41603117). The authors are very grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their revising suggestions.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hubei Key Laboratory of Mine Environmental Pollution Control & Remediation, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Hubei Polytechnic University, Huangshi, 435003, China

    Damao Xu, Zhishuang Zhou, Changlin Zhan, Shan Liu, Jiaquang Zhang, Hongxia Liu, Ziguo Liu & Xianli Liu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Pollution Control and Resources Reuse, College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    Damao Xu

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  1. Damao Xu
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  2. Zhishuang Zhou
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  3. Changlin Zhan
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  4. Shan Liu
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  5. Jiaquang Zhang
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  6. Hongxia Liu
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  7. Ziguo Liu
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  8. Xianli Liu
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Correspondence to Changlin Zhan or Ziguo Liu.

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Xu, D., Zhou, Z., Zhan, C. et al. Pollution Characteristics and Associated Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals in Farmland Soils From a Typical County of Hubei Province, Central China. Bull Environ Contam Toxicol 107, 327–335 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-021-03303-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00128-021-03303-7

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