Concentrations, Distribution, Sources and Ecological Risk Assessment of Trace Elements in Soils from Wuhan, Central China

Ababo Workineh Tadesse, Tekleweini Gereslassie, Qiang Xu, Xiaojun Tang and Jun Wang
Additional contact information
Ababo Workineh Tadesse: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Tekleweini Gereslassie: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Qiang Xu: Department of management engineering, Shangrao Vocational and Technical College, Shangrao 334109, China
Xiaojun Tang: Wuhan Britain-China School, Wuhan Foreign Languages School, Wuhan, 430022 China
Jun Wang: Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 430074, China

IJERPH, 2018, vol. 15, issue 12, 1-19

Abstract: This study aimed to determine the concentration levels, potential sources and ecological risks of eleven trace elements, namely Cr, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, As, Sb, Cd, Zn, Hg and Pb, in the soil from Huangpi district, Wuhan, Central China. Soil samples were collected from eighteen sites at soil depths of 1–10 and 10–20 cm and analyzed using Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometer ICP-MS (Thermo X SERIES 2, Scientific and Innovative Technology Co. Ltd., Beijing, China). The recorded mean concentration of the elements were in a decreasing order of Fe > Co > Cr > Ni > Pb > Cu > As > Cd > Sb > Zn > Hg. The mean concentration of trace elements, soil pH and total organic carbon (TOC) were higher at a soil depth of 1–10 cm. The obtained mean concentration of Cr, Co, As, Cd, Ni, Cu, Hg and Pb were above the soil background values of Wuhan and Hubei Province. The mean concentration values of Co, Ni and Cd, exceeded the recommended FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization)/ISRIC (International Soil Reference and Information Centre) (2004) and WHO/FAO (2001) values. Pearson’s correlation analysis illustrated that there was a strong and significant correlation between trace elements, whereas, a weak positive and negative correlation between elements and soil properties (pH and TOC). The principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis (CA) result indicated that the concentration of trace elements in Huangpi soil were originated from anthropogenic sources. Potential ecological risk index (RI) of this study revealed that there is a high ecological risk of trace elements in the soil. Enrichment factor (EF) and geo-accumulation index ( I geo ) of trace elements for this study indicated that the study area is strongly contaminated with Cd and Co. Generally, the finding of this research showed that Huangpi soil is contaminated.

Keywords: trace elements; concentration; microwave digester; Wuhan; soil contamination; ecological risk (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2873/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/15/12/2873/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:15:y:2018:i:12:p:2873-:d:190721

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().