Heavy Metals Distribution, Sources, and Ecological Risk Assessment in Huixian Wetland, South China

Abstract

This research has focused on the source identification, concentration, and ecological risk assessment of eight heavy metals in the largest karst wetland (Huixian) of south China. Numerous samples from superficial soil and sediment within ten representative landuse types were collected and examined, and the results were analyzed using multiple methods. Single pollution index (Pi) results were underpinned by the Geoaccumulation index (Igeo) method, in which Cd was observed as the priority pollutant with the highest contamination degree in this area. As for the most polluted landuse type, via applying Nemerow’s synthetical contamination index (PN) and Potential ecological risk index (RI), the river and rape field posed the highest ecological risks, while moderate for the rest. To quantify the drivers of the contaminants, a principal component analysis (PCA) was carried out and weathering of the watershed’s parent carbonate rocks was found to be the main possible origin, followed by anthropogenic sources induced by agricultural fertilizer. Considering the impacts of these potentially toxic elements on public health, the results of this study are essential to take preventive actions for environmental protection and sustainable development in the region.

Pollution and Ecological Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Road-Deposited Sediments Around the Active Smelting Industry of Korea

“…The nemerow index (P N ) are widely used to make a comprehensive evaluation of the pollution levels of heavy metals in soils and sediments [31][32][33][34][35] and was calculated using the following equation:…”

“Assessment of Heavy Metal Pollution in Soil of Chattogram Hill Tracts, Bangladesh and Concomitant Health Risk”

“…The variance and eigenvalue of PC-2 were 21.151 % and 1.692 that showed strong positive loading in Cu (0.920) and Zn (0.738) and moderate positive loading in Pb (0.528). PC-2 was suggesting that Cu and Zn from the lithogenic origin are affirmed to show close geo-chemical dependence as the iron family (Huang et al, 2020).…”

“…= the toxic response factor of heavy metal, i. The toxic response factor for Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn, Fe, Ni and Cr are 5, 30, 5, 1, 1, 1, 5 and 2 respectively (Gbadamosi et al, 2018;Huang et al, 2020).…”

Pollution Profile and Ecological Risk Assessment of Heavy Metals from Dumpsites in Onne, Rivers State, Nigeria

“…Heavy metal pollution with its potential ecological risk has been a global environmental concern [11]. Geochemical approaches, such as Contamination Factor (CF), Pollution Load Index (PLI), geoaccumulation Index (Igeo), Enrichment Factor (EF), Potential Ecological Risk Factor (PERF), Potential Ecological Risk Index (PERI), in conjunction with Principal Component Analysis (PCA), have been extensively used in many studies as a multivariate chemometric technique to evaluate the source and level of soil pollution as well as ecological geochemistry assessment as previously reported by several authors [3,[12][13][14][15][16].…”