Source identification and apportionment of heavy metals in urban soil profiles

Xiao-San Luo; Yan Xue; Yan-Ling Wang; Long Cang; Bo Xu; Jing Ding

doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.01.048

Source identification and apportionment of heavy metals in urban soil profiles

Chemosphere. 2015 May:127:152-7. doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.01.048. Epub 2015 Feb 16.

Authors

Xiao-San Luo¹, Yan Xue², Yan-Ling Wang², Long Cang³, Bo Xu⁴, Jing Ding⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Agricultural Resources and Environment, IceMe, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Agricultural Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China; Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China. Electronic address: xsluo@nuist.edu.cn.
² Department of Agricultural Resources and Environment, IceMe, Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Agricultural Meteorology, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
³ Key Laboratory of Soil Environment and Pollution Remediation, Institute of Soil Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China.
⁴ Key Laboratory of Urban Environment and Health, Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.

PMID: 25698100
DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2015.01.048

Abstract

Because heavy metals (HMs) occurring naturally in soils accumulate continuously due to human activities, identifying and apportioning their sources becomes a challenging task for pollution prevention in urban environments. Besides the enrichment factors (EFs) and principal component analysis (PCA) for source classification, the receptor model (Absolute Principal Component Scores-Multiple Linear Regression, APCS-MLR) and Pb isotopic mixing model were also developed to quantify the source contribution for typical HMs (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn) in urban park soils of Xiamen, a representative megacity in southeast China. Furthermore, distribution patterns of their concentrations and sources in 13 soil profiles (top 20 cm) were investigated by different depths (0-5, 5-10, 10-20 cm). Currently the principal anthropogenic source for HMs in urban soil of China is atmospheric deposition from coal combustion rather than vehicle exhaust. Specifically for Pb source by isotopic model ((206)Pb/(207)Pb and (208)Pb/(207)Pb), the average contributions were natural (49%)>coal combustion (45%)≫traffic emissions (6%). Although the urban surface soils are usually more contaminated owing to recent and current human sources, leaching effects and historic vehicle emissions can also make deep soil layer contaminated by HMs.

Keywords: Atmospheric deposition; Heavy metals (HMs); Soil contamination; Soil layers; Source contributions; Urban environmental geochemistry.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

China
Cities
Coal
Environmental Monitoring
Human Activities
Metals, Heavy / analysis*
Models, Theoretical
Principal Component Analysis
Regression Analysis
Soil Pollutants / analysis*
Vehicle Emissions

Substances

Coal
Metals, Heavy
Soil Pollutants
Vehicle Emissions