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Elevated urbanization-driven plant accumulation and human intake risks of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in crops of peri-urban farmlands

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Abstract

As an ubiquitous carcinogen, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are closely related to anthropogenic activities. The process of urbanization leads to the spatial interlacing of farmlands and urbanized zones. However, field evidence on the influence of urbanization on the accumulation of PAHs in crops of peri-urban farmlands is lacking. This study comparatively investigated the urbanization-driven levels, compositions, and sources of PAHs in 120 paired plant and soil samples collected from the Yangtze River Delta in China and their species-specific human intake risks. The concentrations of PAHs in crops and soils in the peri-urban areas were 2407.92 ng g−1 and 546.64 ng g−1, respectively, which are significantly higher than those in the rural areas. The PAHs in the root were highly relevant to those in the soils (R2 = 0.63, p < 0.01), and the root bioconcentration factors were higher than 1.0, implying the contributions of root uptake to plant accumulations. However, the translocation factors in the peri-urban areas (1.57 ± 0.33) were higher than those in the rural areas (1.19 ± 0.14), indicating the enhanced influence through gaseous absorption. For the congeners, the 2- to 3-ring PAHs showed a higher plant accumulation potential than the 4- to 6-ring PAHs. Principal component analysis show that the PAHs in the peri-urban plants predominantly resulted from urbanization parameters, such as coal combustion, vehicle emissions, and biomass burning. The mean values of estimated dietary intake of PAHs from the consumption of peri-urban and rural crops were 9116 ng day−1 and 6601.83 ng day−1, respectively. The intake risks of different crops followed the order rice > cabbage > carrot > pea. Given the significant input of PAHs from urban to farmland, the influence of many anthropogenic pollutants arising from rapid urbanization should be considered when assessing the agricultural food safety.

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Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3

source analysis of PAHs of aboveground part (a) and underground part (b) in peri-urban crops

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The authors declare that (the/all other) data supporting the findings of this study are available within the article (and its supplementary material files).

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Funding

This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21976160, 21577127).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Microbial Technology for Industrial Pollution Control of Zhejiang Province, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, China

    Anping Zhang & Jianqiang Sun

  2. International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances, College of Environment, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, China

    Xintao Ye, Xindong Yang, Jiacheng Li, Haofeng Zhu, Honglei Xu, Jiaqi Meng & Tianwei Xu

Authors
  1. Anping Zhang
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  2. Xintao Ye
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  3. Xindong Yang
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  7. Jiaqi Meng
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Contributions

Anping Zhang: Conceptualization and writing—review and editing. Xintao Ye: Writing (original draft) and formal analysis. Xindong Yang: Methodology and software. Jiacheng Li: Methodology. Haofeng Zhu: Investigation. Honglei Xu: Validation. Jiaqi Meng: Visualization. Tianwei Xu: Investigation. Jianqiang Sun: Writing (review and editing) and supervision.

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Correspondence to Jianqiang Sun.

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This study does not report on or involve the use of any animal or human data or tissue.

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The authors agree to publication in the Journal of Environmental Science and Pollution Research and also to publication of the article in English by Springer in Springer’s corresponding English-language journal.

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Supplementary Information

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11356_2022_20623_MOESM1_ESM.docx

The supplementary material includes the physicochemical properties of PAHs, the GC/MS parameters, the parameters used in ILCR, the principal component analysis results, sampling diagrams, chromatograms, the soil and plant concentration distribution, and bioconcentration factors, and the PAHs isomerization rate. (DOCX 502 KB)

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Zhang, A., Ye, X., Yang, X. et al. Elevated urbanization-driven plant accumulation and human intake risks of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in crops of peri-urban farmlands. Environ Sci Pollut Res 29, 68143–68151 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-20623-1

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