Environmental quality and sources of heavy metals in the topsoil based on multivariate statistical analyses: a case study in Laiwu City, Shandong Province, China

Lei Yu, Jiemin Cheng (), Jincheng Zhan and Aixia Jiang
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Lei Yu: Shandong Normal University
Jiemin Cheng: Shandong Normal University
Jincheng Zhan: Shandong Institute of Geological Survey
Aixia Jiang: Shandong Normal University

Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, 2016, vol. 81, issue 3, No 2, 1435-1445

Abstract: Abstract To provide a basis for soil environmental risk pre-warning, management and pollution remediation, 560 topsoil samples (0–20 cm) were collected from farmland soil in Laiwu. The environmental quality of heavy metals in soil was evaluated with Nemerow pollution index, and the sources and spatial distribution features of heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn) were investigated with the multivariate statistical analysis method. The results showed that the average amounts of As were 8.80 ± 4.05 mg kg−1, Cd 0.15 ± 0.09 mg kg−1, Cr 74.21 ± 44.82 mg kg−1, Cu 27.92 ± 11.44 mg kg−1, Hg 0.05 ± 0.20 mg kg−1, Ni 36.10 ± 24.92 mg kg−1, Pb 28.81 ± 18.90 mg kg−1 and Zn 74.54 ± 41.69 mg kg−1, respectively. These eight heavy metals do not exceed the national secondary standard value except for As, but the average amounts of the other seven kinds of heavy metals were higher than the soil natural geological background of Shandong Province. Eight kinds of heavy metals could be divided into three principle components: PC1 (Cd, Pb and Zn) was mainly influenced by agriculture and industry as well as transportation; PC2 (Cr and Ni) was natural element; and PC3 (As and Hg) was relevant to the exploitation of mine, the coal combustion and irrigation with polluted water. Cu was considered to be affected by nature and human activity and had a relatively bigger loading. The major soil of researched area was better than Class III of Nemerow multifactor index which has high environmental quality, and virtually no soil studied exceeded the Class III of Nemerow multifactor index.

Keywords: Topsoil; Heavy metals; Environmental quality; Multivariate statistical analysis; Laiwu (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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DOI: 10.1007/s11069-015-2130-y

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