Abstract
Due to rapid urbanization, industrialization, agricultural development, and mining activities, soil heavy metal pollution has become a severe issue in China. To explore the regional heavy metal ecological risk of lake sediment and surrounding topsoil, we analyzed 237 lakes, with 1797 lake sediment sampling points and 1164 surrounding topsoil sampling points. Lower mean concentrations were detected for most heavy metals in soils than sediment (except for Hg). Cd and Hg in sediments and soils showed a more significant variation, with the coefficient of variation exceeding 110%. Linear regressions and Pearson’s correlation analyses demonstrated that sediments and soils exhibited significant positive correlations. The principal heavy metals exceeding the Agricultural Soil Control Standard (ASCS) in sediments and soils were As and Cd, respectively. The Yunnan-Guizhou Plateau Lake Region (YGPLR) was the most seriously affected, exceeding the ASCS for Cd. The lakes with the most severe pollution were located in YGPLR impacted by the high background concentration of heavy metals in soil and mineral development activities. The Eastern Plain Lake Region, the Southeast Lake Region, and the Northeast Plain and Mountain Lake Region showed a clear anthropogenic impact. Lakes in the Inner Mongolia-Xinjiang Lake Region and the Tibetan Plateau Lake Region were estimated to have relatively low ecological risks due to their sparse population and slight environmental disturbance. The impact of geochemical factors on the ecological risk of heavy metals in lake sediments is more substantial than that of human activities at the regional scale.
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Data availability
The heavy metal contamination in surface sediments and surrounding soil used in this study can be available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
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Acknowledgments
The authors are extremely grateful to the anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments and suggestions.
Funding
This research was funded by the National Key Research Program of China (2018YFC1800505, 2018YFF0213401, 2018YFC1800203).
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Minghao Wang: Methodology, formal analysis, writing (original draft preparation), and writing (review and editing)
Xiaoyang Liu: Project administration, supervision, formal analysis, writing (original draft preparation), and writing (review and editing)
Bing Yang: Software
Yang Fei: Conceptualization
Jingjing Yu: Data curation
Ran An: Validation and visualization
Lijie Duan: Writing (review and editing)
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Appendix. Assessment standard of heavy metal pollution and risk level
Appendix. Assessment standard of heavy metal pollution and risk level
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Wang, M., Liu, X., Yang, B. et al. Heavy metal contamination in surface sediments from lakes and their surrounding topsoils of China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 29118–29130 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12091-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-12091-2