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Comprehensive risk assessment and source identification of selected heavy metals (Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, Hg, As) in tidal saltmarsh sediments of Shuangtai Estuary, China

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Abstract

Heavy metals do not degrade and can remain in the environment for a long time. In this study, we analyzed the effects of Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, Hg, and As, on environmental quality, pollutant enrichment, ecological hazard, and source identification of elements in sediments using data collected from samples taken from Shuangtai tidal wetland. The comprehensive pollution indices were used to assess environmental quality; fuzzy similarity analysis and geoaccumulation index were used to analyze pollution accumulation; correlation matrix, principal component analysis, and clustering analysis were used to analyze pollution source; environmental risk index and ecological risk index were used to assess ecological risk. The results showed that the environmental quality was either clean or almost clean. Pollutant enrichment analysis showed that the four sub-regions had similar pollution-causing metals to the background values of the soil element of the Liao River Plain, which were ranked according to their similarity. Source identification showed that all the elements were correlated. Ecological hazard analysis showed that the environmental risk index in the study area was less than zero, posing a low ecological risk. Ecological risk of the six elements was as follows: As > Cd > Hg > Cu > Pb > Zn.

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Funding information

This work was financially supported by the National Nature Science Foundation of China (No. 41171389), the Public Science and Technology Research Funds Projects of Ocean (No. 201305043) and the Program for Liaoning Excellent Talents in University (No. LR2013035).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Offshore Marine Environmental Research of Liaoning Higher Education, Dalian Ocean University, Dalian, 116023, China

    Chang-Fa Liu, Yuan Liu, Heng-Jiang Cai & Hai-Feng Wei

  2. School of Marine Sciences and Environments, Dalian Ocean University, Dalian, 116023, China

    Bing Li, Yi-Ting Wang & Jia-Wen Wu

  3. Institute of Ocean and Fisheries of Panjin, Panjin, 124010, China

    Jin Li

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  1. Chang-Fa Liu
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  2. Bing Li
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  3. Yi-Ting Wang
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  4. Yuan Liu
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  8. Jin Li
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Correspondence to Chang-Fa Liu.

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Liu, CF., Li, B., Wang, YT. et al. Comprehensive risk assessment and source identification of selected heavy metals (Cu, Cd, Pb, Zn, Hg, As) in tidal saltmarsh sediments of Shuangtai Estuary, China. Environ Monit Assess 189, 541 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-017-6245-3

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