Bulk/wet deposition of trace metals to rural, industrial, and urban areas in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Yuandan Ma; Yuqiong Tang; Hao Xu; Xiuying Zhang; Hongling Liu; Shanqian Wang; Wuting Zhang

doi:10.1016/j.ecoenv.2018.11.002

Bulk/wet deposition of trace metals to rural, industrial, and urban areas in the Yangtze River Delta, China

Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2019 Mar:169:185-191. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2018.11.002.

Authors

Yuandan Ma¹, Yuqiong Tang², Hao Xu³, Xiuying Zhang⁴, Hongling Liu⁵, Shanqian Wang⁶, Wuting Zhang⁷

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Subtropical Silviculture, Zhejiang A & F University, Hangzhou 311300, China.
² State Experimental Teaching Demonstration Center for Environmental Science and Engineering, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
³ College of Landscape Architecture, Nanjing Forestry University, Nanjing, Jiangsu, China.
⁴ International Institute for Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: zhangxy@nju.edu.cn.
⁵ State Key Lab Pollut Control & Resource Reuse, School of the Environment, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China. Electronic address: hlliu@nju.edu.cn.
⁶ International Institute for Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China.
⁷ International Institute for Earth System Science, Nanjing University, Nanjing 210023, China; Jiangsu Center for Collaborative Innovation in Geographical Information Resource Development and Application, Nanjing 210023, China.

PMID: 30448701
DOI: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2018.11.002

Abstract

The bulk depositions of trace metals to three land uses in the Yangtze River Delta are investigated based on the collected 154 precipitation samples from August 2015 to May 2017. The volume-weighted mean (VWM) concentrations of Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd, and Pb were 13.28, 5.32, 13.02, 0.33, and 10.53 μg L^-1, and 12%, 16%, 3%, 11%, and 26% of precipitation events exceeded the limits in the Central Drinking-Water Source Area (GB3838-2002), respectively. Furthermore, the five metals varied significantly under urban, industrial, and rural land use conditions, indicating that these metal concentrations were greatly determined by local sources; lower concentrations were found in sea and local air masses than in air masses from inland trajectories. Combining the precipitation amounts, the bulk deposition fluxes of the five metals were 25.99, 25.47, 20.60, 10.40, 0.64 mg m^-2 yr^-1. By comparing the metal deposition fluxes in 98 studies across China, Ni and Pb deposition in the Yangtze River Delta was higher, while that of Cd and Zn was lower than their respective averages across China, indicating that Ni and Pb pollution should receive more attention in the study area. CAPSULE: Bulk/wet deposition fluxes of trace metals varied greatly among rural, industrial, and urban areas, and Pb and Ni showed severe pollution levels in the Yangtze River Delta.

Keywords: Bulk/wet deposition; Land uses; Trace metals; Yangtze River Delta.

MeSH terms

China
Environmental Monitoring / methods*
Environmental Pollution / analysis*
Humans
Industry
Metals, Heavy / analysis*
Rivers / chemistry*
Rural Population
Trace Elements / analysis*
Urban Population

Substances

Metals, Heavy
Trace Elements