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Heavy metal enrichment in the soil along the Delhi–Ulan section of the Qinghai–Tibet railway in China

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Abstract

The pollutants that are discharged from roads and traffic have attracted much attention recently. Nonetheless, most studies have mainly focused on highways and seldom on railways. In this study, soil samples were selected at the embankment and perpendicularly at different distances (2, 5, 10, 20, 30, 50, 60, 70, 80, 100, and 150 m) from the embankment bottom of the Qinghai–Tibet railway. Furthermore, soils were selected at four soil depths (5, 10, 20, and 30 cm) of each sample at the flat. The enrichment of nine heavy metals (V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Rb, Cd, and Pb) in soils along the Delhi–Ulan section of the Qinghai–Tibet railway was studied. The results indicated that the mean concentrations of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb, and Cd were highest at the embankment. The Cu concentrations in soils decreased by an S-curve-shaped function with increasing distance from the embankment, while Cd, Pb, and Zn decreased by inverse functions (p < 0.0001). The concentrations of other studied metal did not show significant changes with increasing distance. After performing a statistical analysis, Pb, Cd, and Zn in soils were considered to be influenced by railway operations. However, the influence was weak and only spanned less than 5 m from the bottom of the embankment horizontally and 10 cm from the surface vertically. The mean concentrations of heavy metals in soils along the Delhi–Ulan section of the Qinghai–Tibet railway were considered lower compared with those along other railways.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support that was provided by the National Basic Research Program of China (grant no. 2010CB951704) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 40801042 and 90202012). The authors are grateful to Dr. Liu Linshan, Dr. Zhang Xueru, Ms. Zhang Qinqin, Mr. Yu Haibin, Mr. Qi Wei, and Mr. Hu Zhongjun of IGSNRR, CAS, for their support during the field survey and experimental analysis. Additionally, the authors are grateful to Dr. Zhang Jiping and Dr. Wang Li of IGSNRR for their suggestions to the manuscript.

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  1. Institute of Geographic Sciences and Natural Resource Research (IGSNRR), Chinese Academy of Sciences, No. 11 A, Datun Road, Anwai, Beijing, 100101, China

    Hua Zhang, Yili Zhang & Zhaofeng Wang

  2. Key Lab of Poyang Lake Wetland and Watershed Research, Ministry of Education (Jiangxi Normal University), Nanchang, Jiangxi, 330022, China

    Mingjun Ding

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  1. Hua Zhang
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Correspondence to Zhaofeng Wang.

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Zhang, H., Zhang, Y., Wang, Z. et al. Heavy metal enrichment in the soil along the Delhi–Ulan section of the Qinghai–Tibet railway in China. Environ Monit Assess 185, 5435–5447 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2957-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-012-2957-6

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