Toxic elements pollution risk as affected by various input sources in soils of greenhouses, kiwifruit orchards, cereal fields, and forest/grassland

Zhikun Chen; Muhammad Imran; Guanghua Jing; Weixi Wang; Biao Huang; Yingmei Li; Yanxia Zhang; Yizhe Yang; Qiangqiang Lu; Zhao Zhang; Vasileios Antoniadis; Sabry M Shaheen; Nanthi Bolan; Jörg Rinklebe

doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122639

Toxic elements pollution risk as affected by various input sources in soils of greenhouses, kiwifruit orchards, cereal fields, and forest/grassland

Environ Pollut. 2023 Dec 1:338:122639. doi: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122639. Epub 2023 Sep 29.

Authors

Zhikun Chen¹, Muhammad Imran², Guanghua Jing¹, Weixi Wang¹, Biao Huang³, Yingmei Li⁴, Yanxia Zhang⁵, Yizhe Yang⁶, Qiangqiang Lu¹, Zhao Zhang¹, Vasileios Antoniadis⁷, Sabry M Shaheen⁸, Nanthi Bolan⁹, Jörg Rinklebe¹⁰

Affiliations

¹ Key Laboratory of Soil Resource &Biotech Application, Xi'an Botanical Garden of Shaanxi Province (Institute of Botany of Shaanxi Province), Xi'an, 710061, China; Xi 'an Ecological Monitoring and Restoration Engineering Technology Research Center, Xi'an Botanical Garden of Shaanxi Province (Institute of Botany of Shaanxi Province), Xi'an, 710061, China.
² Key Laboratory of Soil Resource &Biotech Application, Xi'an Botanical Garden of Shaanxi Province (Institute of Botany of Shaanxi Province), Xi'an, 710061, China; Xi 'an Ecological Monitoring and Restoration Engineering Technology Research Center, Xi'an Botanical Garden of Shaanxi Province (Institute of Botany of Shaanxi Province), Xi'an, 710061, China. Electronic address: imranm@gudgk.edu.pk.
³ Key Laboratory of Soil Resource &Biotech Application, Xi'an Botanical Garden of Shaanxi Province (Institute of Botany of Shaanxi Province), Xi'an, 710061, China; Xi 'an Ecological Monitoring and Restoration Engineering Technology Research Center, Xi'an Botanical Garden of Shaanxi Province (Institute of Botany of Shaanxi Province), Xi'an, 710061, China; Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing, 210008, China.
⁴ Bio-Agriculture Institute of Shaanxi, Xi'an, 710043, China.
⁵ School of Environment, Nanjing Normal University, Nanjing, 210023, China.
⁶ Shaanxi Province Cultivated Land Quality and Agricultural Environment Protection Workstation, Xi'an, 710003, China.
⁷ Department of Agriculture Crop Production and Rural Environment, University of Thessaly, Greece.
⁸ University of Wuppertal, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water- and Waste Management, Laboratory of Soil- and Groundwater-Management, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285, Wuppertal, Germany; King Abdulaziz University, Faculty of Meteorology, Environment, and Arid Land Agriculture, Department of Arid Land Agriculture, 21589 Jeddah, Saudi Arabia; University of Kafrelsheikh, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Soil and Water Sciences, 33516, Kafr El-Sheikh, Egypt.
⁹ UWA School of Agriculture and Environment, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia; The UWA Institute of Agriculture, The University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia 6009, Australia.
¹⁰ University of Wuppertal, School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Institute of Foundation Engineering, Water- and Waste Management, Laboratory of Soil- and Groundwater-Management, Pauluskirchstraße 7, 42285, Wuppertal, Germany.

PMID: 37778487
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2023.122639

Abstract

Increasing food demand has led to more intensive farming, which threatens our ecosystem and human health due to toxic elements accumulation. This study aimed to estimate the vulnerability of different agricultural systems with unequal high fertilizer input practices regarding toxic element pollution in the greenhouse, kiwifruit orchard, cereal field, and forest/grassland. Soil samples were collected from 181 sites across Shaanxi Province, China, and analyzed for selected characteristics and toxic elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, and Zn). The contamination factor (CF_x) represents the ratio of the measured value of the toxic element in the soil over the soil background values. The CF_x values of all the toxic elements were above background values, while Cd and Hg contamination levels were more severe than those of Zn, Cu, As, Cr, and Pb. Kiwifruit orchards and greenhouse soils were contaminated with Cd, Hg, Cu, and Zn, but cereal fields and forest/grassland soils were contaminated with As, Cd, Hg, and Hg. Overall, the cumulative pollution load (PLI) of toxic elements indicated moderate contamination. The cumulative ecological risk (RI) results indicated that greenhouse (178.81) and forest/grassland (156.25) soils were at moderate ecological risks, whereas kiwifruit orchards (120.97) and cereal field (139.72) soils were at low ecological risks. According to a Pearson correlation analysis, Cd, Hg, Cu, and Zn were substantially linked with soil organic matter (SOM), total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorous (TP), and total potassium (TK). The primary sources of toxic elements were phosphate and potash fertilizers, manure, composts, and pesticides in a greenhouse, kiwifruit orchards, and cereal fields, whereas, in forest/grassland soils parent material and atmospheric deposition were the sources identified by positive matrix factorization (PMF). Furthermore, the partial least square structural equation model (PLS-SEM) demonstrated that agriculture inputs largely influenced toxic elements accumulation. We conclude that high fertilizer inputs in greenhouse soils should be considered carefully so that toxic element pollution may be minimized.

Keywords: Agriculture farming systems; Ecological risk; Sources of toxic elements; Toxic elements pollution load; Unequal inputs.

MeSH terms

Cadmium / analysis
China
Ecosystem
Edible Grain / chemistry
Environmental Monitoring / methods
Fertilizers / analysis
Forests
Grassland
Humans
Lead / analysis
Mercury* / analysis
Metals, Heavy* / analysis
Risk Assessment
Soil / chemistry
Soil Pollutants* / analysis

Substances

Soil
Metals, Heavy
Cadmium
Fertilizers
Lead
Mercury
Soil Pollutants