Comparison of Pollution Levels, Biomagnification Capacity, and Risk Assessments of Heavy Metals in Nearshore and Offshore Regions of the South China Sea

Shaochen Yang, Kaifeng Sun (), Jinling Liu, Nan Wei and Xing Zhao
Additional contact information
Shaochen Yang: Hubei Key Laboratory of Critical Zone Evolution, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Kaifeng Sun: South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China, Guangzhou 510655, China
Jinling Liu: Hubei Key Laboratory of Critical Zone Evolution, School of Earth Sciences, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan 430074, China
Nan Wei: South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China, Guangzhou 510655, China
Xing Zhao: South China Institute of Environmental Sciences, Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China, Guangzhou 510655, China

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

Abstract: Seawater and fish were collected from nearshore (Pearl River Estuarine, PRE) and offshore (middle of the South China Sea, MSCS) regions of the South China Sea (SCS) to determine the heavy metals (HMs) pollution status and biomagnification characteristics. Results show that Cu in PRE seawater was moderately contaminated. Overall pollution risk of seawater were PRE (3.32) > MSCS (0.56), whereas that of fish was MSCS (0.88) > PRE (0.42). δ 13 C and δ 15 N exhibited distinguished characteristics for PRE and MSCS fish, indicating the diverse energy sources, nitrogen sources, and food web structures of nearshore and offshore regions. Cu was biomagnified whereas Pb and Ni were biodiluted in offshore fish. Hg presented significant biomagnification in both of nearshore and offshore fish. Finally, the target hazard quotient of Hg (1.41) in MSCS fish exceeded the standard limit, which was posed by high Hg concentration and consumption rate of offshore fish.

Keywords: heavy metals; the South China Sea; carbon stable isotope; nitrogen stable isotope; biomagnification; health risk assessments (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:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12248/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/19/12248/ (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:19:y:2022:i:19:p:12248-:d:926498

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 ().