Distribution Pattern of Heavy Metals in the Surface Sediments and Environment Quality Evaluation for the Yangtze River Deltaic Economic Zone

Heavy metals distribution and environmental quality assessment for sediments off the southern coast of the Shandong Peninsula, China

“…More specifically, high-value areas of heavy metals are mainly found in the estuary (Li et al, 2005;Zhang et al, 2011a,b); main heavy metal pollutants in intertidal sediments are derived from industrial discharge, domestic sewage, and precipitation and dust traffic pollution (Liu et al, 2010); there are relationships between heavy metals content, water depth, offshore distance and other factors (Yin et al, 2001). Regarding pollution assessments, methods commonly used to assess heavy metals pollution in water environment sediments include the pollution index, Hakanson potential ecological risk index, face graph, pollution load index, excess after regression analysis formula and geoaccumulation index (Sun et al, 1992;Gan et al, 2003;Wang et al, 2007;Wei et al, 2012;Liu et al, 2006Liu et al, , 2013Chen, 1991;Wang and Yao, 2005;Li et al, 2011;Lin et al, 2013). Geoaccumulation and Hakanson index assessments have shown that overall heavy metals sediment pollution is minimal, while Hg pollution is relatively high in Jiaozhou Bay.…”

“…Therefore, heavy metal elements in sediments not only contain a high degree of valuable geological and environmental information but also reflect pollution conditions in the region. Sediment heavy metals serve as important tools for geochemical studies and ecological environment quality assessments (Ma and Wang, 2003;Liu et al, 2013). Environmental pollution problems associated with heavy metals have spurred worldwide concern since the middle of last century.…”