Heavy metals in surface sediments of the shallow lakes in eastern China: their relations with environmental factors and anthropogenic activities

Abstract

The aquatic environment is affected by heavy metal pollution. This study was conducted to test the hypothesis that environmental factors and anthropogenic activities influence the distributions and the risks posed by heavy metals in surface sediments in shallow lakes in eastern China, which is an area affected by rapid urbanization, industrialization, and population growth. Total Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Se, and Zn concentrations in sediment samples were determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. The I geo showed that sediments in the lakes were moderately polluted with Cr,Cu,Pb,and Zn,and the EF method showed that Cd and Se were significantly enriched in lakes. The heavy metals were found to pose moderate risks in most of the lakes, except for Gaoyou Lake, Honghu Lake, Poyang Lake, and Weishan Lake. The RI method indicated that very high risks were posed in Dongting Lake and Poyang Lake. Cd was found to pose much higher levels of risk than the other metals. Significant correlations were found between the heavy metal concentrations and the total carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur concentrations. The gross domestic product represented anthropogenic activities well. The gross domestic product of an area and the gross domestic products of primary and secondary industries in an area all had significant relationships with the concentrations of Cu and Pb, indicating that anthropogenic activities have different impacts on pollution with different heavy metals. The gross domestic product index was found to be a driving force behind the pollution of lakes with heavy metals.

Anthropogenic Impact and Ecological Risk Assessment of Thallium and Cobalt in Poyang Lake Using the Geochemical Baseline

“…Compared with previous studies [3,4], the concentrations of Tl and Co in Poyang Lake were found to have increased slightly ( Table 2), suggesting that they were influenced by anthropogenic activities in the Poyang Lake basin. This is consistent with previous studies showing how anthropogenic activities [31], such as hydro-engineering works [44], shipping, mining, and agriculture, affect metal concentrations in Poyang Lake.…”

“…However, few studies have been reported on trace metals in lake sediments based on GBCs. Previous research into the evaluation of metals in sediments has generally used background values (BVs) of trace metals as a reference [22,31]. Numerous sediment evaluation methods have been developed, including the geo-accumulation index (I geo ), the single pollution indices (PI), and the potential ecological risk parameter (E r ); using BVs as a basis, all have been widely applied to assess metal concentration in the sediments of Poyang Lake [25,31].…”

“…Previous research into the evaluation of metals in sediments has generally used background values (BVs) of trace metals as a reference [22,31]. Numerous sediment evaluation methods have been developed, including the geo-accumulation index (I geo ), the single pollution indices (PI), and the potential ecological risk parameter (E r ); using BVs as a basis, all have been widely applied to assess metal concentration in the sediments of Poyang Lake [25,31]. However, by simply using the BVs of trace metals in soils or sediments, evaluation results cannot mirror actual contamination rates; this is because BVs do not consider natural variations in the elementary contents [32].…”

Ecological risk assessment for eutrophication and heavy metal pollution of Suyahu Reservoir sediments

“…The concentrations of total organic carbon (TOC), total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) reflect the nutrient excess of sediments and cause reservoir eutrophication. Zn, Pb, Cd, Cu, Cr, Ni, As and Hg are the eight heavy metals with the greatest ecological risk, so are important indicators for both water environmental monitoring and potential hazard assessment [5][6][7].…”

Pollution Assessment and Sources Identification of Heavy Metals in Surface Sediments from the Nantaizi Lake, Middle China

“…Main sources of heavy metal of lake environment are divided into human activities and natural sources [3][4]. In recent years, with rapid development of urbanization and industrialization, artificial sources, such as wastewater discharge, mining and fossil fuel combustion etc., and natural sources, such as geological structure activity, erosion and weathering etc., have caused entry of a great deal of heavy metal pollutants into waters, and made them gathered at lake sediments, which causes huge damage to urban lakes and threatens urban resident health [5][6][7][8]. As important constituent part of urban ecological system, urban lakes play an irreplaceable role in many respects [9].…”