Contamination Level, Ecological Risk, and Source Identification of Heavy Metals in the Hyporheic Zone of the Weihe River, China

Muhammad Irfan Ahamad, Jinxi Song, Haotian Sun, Xinxin Wang, Muhammad Sajid Mehmood, Muhammad Sajid, Ping Su and Asif Jamal Khan
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Muhammad Irfan Ahamad: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Environmental Carrying Capacity, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Jinxi Song: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Environmental Carrying Capacity, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Haotian Sun: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Environmental Carrying Capacity, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Xinxin Wang: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Environmental Carrying Capacity, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Muhammad Sajid Mehmood: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Environmental Carrying Capacity, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Muhammad Sajid: Key Laboratory for Industrial Biocatalysis, Ministry of Education of China, Institute of Applied Chemistry, Department of Chemical Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
Ping Su: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Environmental Carrying Capacity, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Asif Jamal Khan: Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Earth Surface System and Environmental Carrying Capacity, College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 3, 1-17

Abstract: The sediment pollution caused by different metals has attracted a great deal of attention because of the toxicity, persistence, and bio-accumulation. This study focuses on heavy metals in the hyporheic sediment of the Weihe River, China. Contamination levels of metals were examined by using “geo-accumulation index, enrichment factor, and contamination factor” while ecological risk of metals were determined by “potential ecological risk and risk index”. The pollutant accumulation of metals ranked as follows: “manganese (Mn) > chromium (Cr) > zinc (Zn) > copper (Cu) > nickel (Ni) > arsenic (As) > lead (Pb)”. The geo-accumulation index identified arsenic as class 1 (uncontaminated to moderate contamination), whereas Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, Pb, and Mn were classified as class 0 (uncontaminated). According to the enrichment factor, arsenic originated through anthropogenic activities and Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, and Pb were mainly controlled by natural sources. The contamination factor elucidated that sediments were moderately polluted by (As, Cr, Cu, Zn, Mn, and Pb), whereas Ni slightly contaminated the sediments of the Weihe River. All metals posed a low ecological risk in the study area. The risk index revealed that contribution of arsenic (53.43 %) was higher than half of the total risk.

Keywords: sediments; heavy metals; geo-accumulation index; potential ecological risk; Weihe River (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (5)

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