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Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in riverine sediments of rural area driven by urbanization

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Abstract

Rural revitalization denotes the gathering of large populations in rural areas and the subsequent gradual urbanization. Rural environments have been deteriorated by heavy metals (HMs) over the last few years. Without the existence of large-scale industries, the accumulation of HMs in sediments due to population aggregation in rural environments needs to be scientifically confirmed. Therefore, in this study we first understand the sediment pollution in rural environments in China and across the globe, and subsequently investigate HMs in sediments in rural micro water. The study area, Sichuan Province, China, was divided into two areas, namely, sparsely populated areas (SPA) and densely populated areas (DPA). Eight typical HMs (As, Zn, Ni, Hg, Cd, Cr, Cu, and Pb) were selected to target in riverine sediments, and the content and spatial distribution characteristics were analyzed. The results indicate that As, Hg, Cd, and Pb concentrations in sediments were higher than background values (BVs), with high concentration sample sites located in the DPA. In addition, the geo-accumulation index (Igeo), pollution load index (PLI) and potential ecological risk index (RI) were used to quantitatively evaluate the pollution characteristics of HMs in sediments, revealing that the sediments exhibited high As and Hg pollution in the DPA (PLI = 1.09). In general, mild (RI = 48.76) and moderate (RI = 154.92) HM pollution was observed in the sediments of the SPA and DPA, respectively, based on the high PLI (> 1.0) and RI (> 150) values. Correlation analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) indicate that the Cd in the sediment generally originated from geogenic sources, while the other elements (Zn, As, Cu, Cr, Hg, Ni and Pb) were primarily linked to anthropogenic sources. Finally, the results demonstrate that population aggregation will lead to the enrichment of HMs.

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Funding

This work was supported by the Youth Science Foundation of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42107481), the Key Research and Development Project of Sichuan Science and Technology (2021YFS0289), and the Research Foundation of Southwest University of Science and Technology (20ZX7150).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Key Laboratory of Solid Waste Treatment and Resource Recycle, Ministry of Education, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, 621010, PR China

    Yi Zhou, Shushu Guo, Wanping Zhang, Yuankun Yang, Bin Wang, Jingping Zhu & Shu Chen

  2. School of Environment and Resource, Southwest University of Science and Technology, Mianyang, 621010, China

    Shu Chen

Authors
  1. Yi Zhou
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  2. Shushu Guo
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  3. Wanping Zhang
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  4. Yuankun Yang
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  5. Bin Wang
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  6. Jingping Zhu
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  7. Shu Chen
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Contributions

Yi Zhou: Writing-original draft, Data curation. Shushu Guo, Wanping Zhang: Investigation, Data curation. Yuankun Yang, Bin Wang, Jingping Zhu: Supervision, Methodology. Shu Chen: Methodology, Writing—review & editing. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Shu Chen.

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Zhou, Y., Guo, S., Zhang, W. et al. Ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in riverine sediments of rural area driven by urbanization. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 92193–92205 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-28772-7

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