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Distribution, source identification, and ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in wetland soils of a river–reservoir system

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Abstract

The majority of rivers in the world have been dammed, and over 45,000 large reservoirs have been constructed for multiple purposes. Riparian and reservoir shorelines are the two most important wetland types in a dammed river. To date, few studies have concerned the heavy metal pollution in wetland soils of these river–reservoir systems. In this study, we measured the concentrations of ten heavy metals (Ba, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Sr, and Zn) in surface soils collected from riparian and reservoir shorelines along the Han River in different seasons. Our results found that the Co, Cu, and Ni concentrations in riparian wetlands were significantly lower than those in reservoir shorelines. In riparian wetlands, only soil Sr concentration significantly increased after summer and autumn submergence. Multivariate statistical analyses demonstrated that Ba and Cd might originate from industrial and mining sources, whereas Sr and Mn predominantly originated from natural rock weathering. The ecological risk assessment analysis indicated that both riparian and reservoir shorelines along the Han River in China exhibited a moderate ecological risk in soil heavy metals. The upper Han River basin is the water resource area of China’s Middle Route of the South-to-North Water Transfer Project. Therefore, to control the contamination of heavy metals in wetland soils, more efforts should be focused on reducing the discharge of mining and industrial pollutants into the riparian and reservoir shorelines.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Jianhua Peng and Zhiyong Zhang for their assistance with field sampling. This research was funded by the National Scientific-Basic Special Fund of China (Grant No. 2015FY110400) and the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51379133).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Xiaoliang Jiang, Ziqian Xiong, Guihua Liu & Wenzhi Liu

  2. Key Laboratory of Ecological Impacts of Hydraulic–Projects and Restoration of Aquatic Ecosystem of Ministry of Water Resources, Institute of Hydroecology, Ministry of Water Resources and Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan, 430079, People’s Republic of China

    Hui Liu

  3. School of Freshwater Sciences, University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI, 53204, USA

    Wenzhi Liu

Authors
  1. Xiaoliang Jiang
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  2. Ziqian Xiong
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  3. Hui Liu
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  4. Guihua Liu
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  5. Wenzhi Liu
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Correspondence to Wenzhi Liu.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

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Jiang, X., Xiong, Z., Liu, H. et al. Distribution, source identification, and ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in wetland soils of a river–reservoir system. Environ Sci Pollut Res 24, 436–444 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7775-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-7775-x

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