Accumulation Characteristics and Pollution Evaluation of Soil Heavy Metals in Different Land Use Types: Study on the Whole Region of Tianjin

Tiantian Ma, Youwen Zhang, Qingbai Hu, Minghai Han, Xiaohua Li, Youjun Zhang, Zhiguang Li and Rongguang Shi ()
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Tiantian Ma: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300170, China
Youwen Zhang: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300170, China
Qingbai Hu: School of Environmental Science & Safety Engineering, Tianjin University of Technology, Tianjin 300384, China
Minghai Han: Qamdo Institute of Agricultural Science, Qamdo 854000, China
Xiaohua Li: Rual Energy and Environment Agency, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Beijing 100125, China
Youjun Zhang: Tianjin North China Geological Exploration Bureau, 67, Guang-rui-xi-lu Rd., Tianjin 300170, China
Zhiguang Li: Agricultural Technology Extension Service Centre of Jingyuan County, Baiyin 730900, China
Rongguang Shi: Agro-Environmental Protection Institute, Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, Tianjin 300170, China

IJERPH, 2022, vol. 19, issue 16, 1-15

Abstract: Heavy metal pollution in soil has received much attention in recent decades. Many studies have analyzed the interaction between specific soil quality and soil heavy metal pollution. However, there is little information about the pollution status, spatial distribution and pollution sources of heavy metals in the province of Tianjin. In this paper, the distribution characteristics and pollution sources of heavy metals in soil were studied by means of the surface soil of Tianjin, as the study area and object, conducted in combination with land use types, using multiple data analysis and multivariate statistics, while the pollution levels were evaluated by various indices. The results showed the mean contents of the seven heavy metals of the studied elements followed an increasing order of Cd (0.15 mg/kg) < As (11.9 mg/kg) < Cu (24.3 mg/kg) = Pb (24.3 mg/kg) < Ni (27.9 mg/kg) < Cr (70.7 mg/kg) < Zn (79.1 mg/kg). The median values of Cr and Ni were lower than the background values and did not exceed the screening values at the points, and the median values of Cu, Zn and Pb were close to the background values, while the median contents of As and Cd were higher than the background values. The highest accumulation of heavy metals was found in grassland, and the coefficient of variation of heavy metal contents were higher in garden land, industrial and mining storage land, residential land and transportation land, indicating that the soil heavy metal contents under these land use types were more significantly disturbed by human factors. The evaluation results of the ground accumulation index method showed that the soil in Tianjin was free of pollution, except for Cd, which was at the non-polluted to moderately polluted level. The Nemero integrated pollution index evaluation method and the pollution load index evaluation method together showed that the integrated pollution levels of heavy metals in Tianjin soils were both at no pollution level/safety level. Apart from Cd and As, which were not correlated, the other heavy metals were correlated with each other two by two. Cd, Pb and Zn were the main pollution contributors from traffic, industry and other anthropogenic factors, while Cr and Ni were the main pollution contributors from soil parent material, and Cu was the main pollution contributor from mining and metal smelting. In addition, As was presumed to be the main source of pollution contribution from agriculture and surface runoff.

Keywords: soil; heavy metals; spatial distribution; source analysis; pollution assessment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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