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Source apportionment and risk assessment of soil heavy metals around a key drinking water source area in northern China: multivariate statistical analysis approach

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Abstract

With the intensive urbanization and industrialization in recent years, lots of products containing heavy metals (HMs) have brought in severe environment problems. Yuqiao Reservoir (YQR) is an important drinking water source area in Tianjin of China, and the soil environmental quality of YQR is vital for human health. The goal of this study was to identify the priority control pollutants and hotspots of HMs contamination of YQR catchment. Thus, an integrated field investigation was conducted to analyze the major elements such as As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn in soils around YQR. Geoaccumulation index (Igeo), enrichment factor (EF) and potential ecological risk index (PERI) were employed to assess the contamination status of HMs. The average contents of these elements were given as follows: As 7.97 mg/kg, Cd 0.31 mg/kg, Cr 86.1 mg/kg, Cu 24.7 mg/kg, Hg 0.044 mg/kg, Ni 30.7 mg/kg, Pb 27.3 mg/kg and Zn 76.7 mg/kg. According to geoaccumulation index (Igeo) and enrichment factor (EF) values, Cd, Cr, Pb and As showed a prominent enrichment. The result of multivariate statistics showed that Cd, Cr, Cu, As, Ni, Pb and Zn concentrations were mainly affected by human activities, whereas Hg was mainly from natural release. The anthropogenic activities were the major sources with a contribution of 91.46%, while natural origins only contributed 8.54%. And agricultural fertilization, mining and traffic activities are the most probable sources of these heavy metals in the soil. The PERI values indicated that 65.7% of total HMs were at low risk, 22.5% in moderate risk and 11.8% in considerable risk. To ensure soil environmental quality and human health, cadmium should be listed as a priority control pollutant. Spatial maps of HMs and their integrated PERI provided clear hotspots that indicated lower risk in the region close to YQR but higher risk in the region far from YQR.

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Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the National Key R & D Program of China under Grant No. 2019YFC1407803, and National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 41761144053.

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  1. Xianghui Cao and Wei Li contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Science, Beijing, 100012, China

    Xianghui Cao

  2. State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100085, China

    Xianghui Cao & Shuai Song

  3. Tianjin Eco-Environment Monitoring Center, Tianjin, 300000, China

    Wei Li

  4. College of Environment and Ecology, Chongqing University, Chongqing, 400030, China

    Chenchen Wang

  5. Department of Environmental and Conservation Sciences, University of Swat, Swat, 19130, Pakistan

    Kifayatullah Khan

  6. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, China

    Shuai Song

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  1. Xianghui Cao
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XC involved in data analysis, methodology and drafted this paper, WL involved in did field sampling, data analysis and drafted this paper, and SS, CW, and KK revised the paper.

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Correspondence to Shuai Song.

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Cao, X., Li, W., Song, S. et al. Source apportionment and risk assessment of soil heavy metals around a key drinking water source area in northern China: multivariate statistical analysis approach. Environ Geochem Health 45, 343–357 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-022-01251-7

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