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Heavy metals status, transport mechanisms, sources, and factors affecting their mobility in Chinese agricultural soils

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Abstract

Heavy metals are the focus of much interest because of their environmental persistence, toxicity, and mobility in soils. Some of the Chinese soils have been contaminated with heavy metals due to expansion of mining industries, pesticides usage, and other anthropological activities, which made the agro-ecosystem to become contaminated. The objective of this review is to illuminate the current pollution status, sources of heavy metals, transport mechanisms, and the factors affecting their mobility in Chinese soils. The additional studies in the future will present on source identification and the heavy metal transport characteristics in soil.

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Fig. 1

(Reproduced with permission from Zhang et al. 2015a)

Fig. 2

(Reproduced with permission from Mahar et al. 2016)

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank Dr. William Craig Clark (Western Kentucky University) for checking the English language. This study is supported by the Project “Source Identification and Contamination Characteristics of Heavy Metals in Agricultural Land and Products” (2016YFD0800306), the National Key Research and Development Program of China.

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  1. College of Resources and Environmental Sciences, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, 210095, People’s Republic of China

    Feng Jing, Xiaomin Chen, Zhijiang Yang & Bilin Guo

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  1. Feng Jing
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Jing, F., Chen, X., Yang, Z. et al. Heavy metals status, transport mechanisms, sources, and factors affecting their mobility in Chinese agricultural soils. Environ Earth Sci 77, 104 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-018-7299-4

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