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Occurrence, speciation, and risks of trace metals in soils of greenhouse vegetable production from the vicinity of industrial areas in the Yangtze River Delta, China

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Abstract

The effect of industrial activities on trace metals in farmland of rapidly industrializing regions in developing countries has increasingly been a concern to the public. Here, soils were collected from 13 greenhouse vegetable production (GVP) farms or bases near industrial areas in the Yangtze River Delta of China to investigate the occurrence, speciation, and risks of Cr, Cu, Zn, Cd, Ni, and Pb in GVP soil. The results revealed that the main metal elements causing GVP soil pollution were Cd, Zn, Ni, and Cu, of which contamination levels were generally unpolluted to moderately polluted. Zinc pollution was mainly attributed to heavy fertilization, while Cd, Ni, and Cu pollution may be greatly ascribed to industrial effluents and coal combustion. Metal speciation studies showed that most of Cr, Ni, Cu, and Zn was present in residual fraction while more than half of Cd and Pb was present in non-residual fractions. Additionally, pollution of Cd, Cu, Ni, and Zn in GVP soil increased their corresponding mobile fractions. Risk assessment using potential ecological risk index and risk assessment code showed that Cd was the major risk contributor. Specifically, Cd generally posed moderate or considerable ecological risk as well as displayed medium or high mobility risk in GVP soil. Thus, great attention should be paid to the contribution of both industrial discharges and intensive farming to soil pollution by trace metals, especially Cd, because of its high mobility risk.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful for the financial support from the Zhenjiang Science & Technology Program (No. SH2017045), the Natural Science Foundation of the Higher Education Institutions of the Jiangsu Province, China (No. 17KJB210003), the start-up grant from the Jiangsu University (No. 15JDG029), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 41473073 and No. 31770394).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, 212013, Zhenjiang, People’s Republic of China

    Lanqin Yang, Xiangyang Wu & Wenhua You

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

    Guoming Liu & Biao Huang

  3. Zhenjiang Station of Farmland Quality Protection, 212009, Zhenjiang, People’s Republic of China

    Lin Di

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  1. Lanqin Yang
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Correspondence to Lanqin Yang or Biao Huang.

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Yang, L., Liu, G., Di, L. et al. Occurrence, speciation, and risks of trace metals in soils of greenhouse vegetable production from the vicinity of industrial areas in the Yangtze River Delta, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26, 8696–8708 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-04313-z

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