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Occurrence and distribution of heavy metals and tetracyclines in agricultural soils after typical land use change in east China

  • Contaminated Land, Ecological Assessment and Remediation Conference Series (CLEAR 2012) : Environmental Pollution and Risk Assessments
  • Published:
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Abstract

Land use in east China tends to change from paddy rice to vegetables or other high-value cash crops, resulting in high input rates of organic manures and increased risk of contamination with both heavy metals (HMs) and antibiotics. This investigation was conducted to determine the accumulation, distribution and risks of HMs and tetracyclines (TCs) in surface soils and profiles receiving different amounts of farmyard manure. Soil samples collected from suburbs of Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province were introduced to represent three types of land use change from paddy rice to asparagus production, vineyards and field mustard cultivation, and divided into two portions, one of which was air-dried and sieved through 2-, 0.3- and 0.149-mm nylon mesh for determination of pH and heavy metals. The other portion was frozen at −20 °C, freeze-dried and sieved through a 0.3-mm nylon mesh for tetracyline determination. HM and TC concentrations in surface soils of 14-year-old mustard fields were the highest with total Cu, Zn, Cd and ∑TCs of 50.5, 196, 1.03 mg kg−1 and 22.9 μg kg−1, respectively, on average. The total Cu sequence was field mustard > vineyards > asparagus when duration of land use change was considered; oxytetracycline (OTC) and doxycycline were dominant in soils used for asparagus production; OTC was dominant in vineyards and chlortetracycline (CTC) was dominant in mustard soils. There were positive pollution relationships among Cu, Zn and ∑TCs, especially between Cu and Zn or Cu and ∑TCs. Repeated and excessive application of manures from intensive farming systems may produce combined contamination with HMs and TCs which were found in the top 20 cm of the arable soil profiles and also extended to 20–40 cm depth. Increasing manure application rate and cultivation time led to continuing increases in residue concentrations and movement down the soil profile.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project 40930739) and the National High-Technology Research and Development Program of China (Project 2012AA06A204).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, People’s Republic of China

    Longhhua Wu, Xia Pan, Like Chen, Yujuan Huang, Ying Teng & Yongming Luo

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Xia Pan

  3. Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Yantai, 264003, People’s Republic of China

    Yongming Luo

  4. Agri-Environment Branch, Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute, Newforge Lane, Belfast, BT9 5PX, UK

    Peter Christie

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  1. Longhhua Wu
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  2. Xia Pan
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  3. Like Chen
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  4. Yujuan Huang
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Correspondence to Longhhua Wu.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Wu, L., Pan, X., Chen, L. et al. Occurrence and distribution of heavy metals and tetracyclines in agricultural soils after typical land use change in east China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 20, 8342–8354 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1532-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-013-1532-1

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