Effects of Human Activities on the Spatial Distribution, Ecological Risk and Sources of PTEs in Coastal Sediments

Weili Wang, Cai Lin, Lingqing Wang, Ronggen Jiang, Yang Liu, Hui Lin and Jinmin Chen
Additional contact information
Weili Wang: Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen 361005, China
Cai Lin: Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen 361005, China
Lingqing Wang: Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China
Ronggen Jiang: Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen 361005, China
Yang Liu: Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen 361005, China
Hui Lin: Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen 361005, China
Jinmin Chen: Third Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Xiamen 361005, China

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 23, 1-15

Abstract: Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) have attracted substantial attention because of their widespread sources, long residue time and easy accumulation. PTEs in the surface sediments of inshore waters are strongly affected by human activities because these waters are a zone of interaction between the ocean and land. In the present study, to explore the environmental geochemical behaviour and source of PTEs in the surface sediments of coastal waters, the contents and spatial distributions of copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg) and arsenic (As) in different regions of Xiamen Bay were investigated. The data were processed by multivariate statistical methods, and the distribution characteristics of PTEs in the surface sediments of Xiamen Bay were analysed. In addition, the pollution load index (PLI), geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and potential ecological index(RI) were used to evaluate the pollution degree and potential risk in the surface sediments of Xiamen Bay, and the positive matrix factorisation (PMF) model was used to analyse the source. The results show that Zn had the highest mean concentration, followed by Pb, Cr, Cu, As, Cd and Hg, among the seven PTEs. The mean contents of Pb, Zn, Cd, Cu and Hg, and especially Hg and Cd, were higher than the corresponding environmental background values. The average PLI value indicated that the Xiamen Bay sediment was moderately contaminated by PTEs. The Igeo results showed that Xiamen Bay was moderately to strongly polluted by Cd and Hg. The proportions of samples with low, medium and strong risk levels were 11.63%, 74.42%, and 13.95% in surface sediments, respectively. PMF models showed that the input of chemical fertilizer and medication, anthropogenic atmospheric components and terrestrial detritus were the main sources of PTEs in the surface sediment of Xiamen Bay.

Keywords: potentially toxic elements; Xiamen Bay; sediment; PMF model; risk assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12476/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/23/12476/ (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:18:y:2021:i:23:p:12476-:d:689012

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 ().