Source Apportionment and Ecological Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Cultivated Soils of Xiangzhou, China: A Combined Approach of Geographic Information System and Random Forest

He Huang, Yong Zhou, Yu-Jie Liu, Liang Xiao, Ke Li, Meng-Yao Li, Yang Tian and Fei Wu
Additional contact information
He Huang: Faculty of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Yong Zhou: Faculty of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Yu-Jie Liu: Faculty of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Liang Xiao: Faculty of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Ke Li: Faculty of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Meng-Yao Li: Faculty of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Yang Tian: Faculty of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China
Fei Wu: Faculty of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Central China Normal University, Wuhan 430079, China

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-22

Abstract: Soil is both an important sink and a source for contaminants in the agricultural ecosystem. To research the sources and ecological risk of potentially toxic elements in Xiangzhou, China, 326 soil samples from arable land were collected and analyzed for five potentially toxic elements: cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), lead (Pb), and chromium (Cr). In this research, ecological risk assessment was used to determine the degree of contamination in the research area, the outcome of the Geographic Information System was as used to study the spatial distribution characteristics of potentially toxic elements, and random forest was used to evaluate the natural and artificial influencing factors. We surveyed the sources of potentially toxic elements through quantifying the indicators, which gave further opinions. The results were as follows: (1) The average contents of potentially toxic elements were 0.14 mg/kg (Cd), 0.05 mg/kg (Hg), 12.33 mg/kg (As), 28.39 mg/kg (Pb), and 75.21 mg/kg (Cr), respectively. The results compared with the background value of Hubei, neighboring regions, and countries for Cd, As, Pb, and Cr showed mild pollution. (2) The total evaluation of soil pollution via the comprehensive pollution index indicated slight contamination by Cd. Assessment by the potential ecological risk index indicated low ecological risk due to Cd and moderate contamination by Hg. Evaluation through the geo-accumulation index evinced the low ecological risk for Cd, As, and Pb and moderate contamination by Hg. (3) We found that in addition to natural factors (such as soil parent material, soil pH, etc.), long-term industrial pollution, mineral mining and processing, exhaust emissions from transportation, the application of manure from farms as farmyard manure, and sewage irrigation were the primary anthropogenic sources of potentially toxic element contamination in the soil.

Keywords: cultivated soils; potentially toxic elements; ecological risk assessment; source analysis; random forest (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1214/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1214/ (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:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1214-:d:486241

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

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