Identification and uncertainty analysis of high-risk areas of heavy metals in sediments of the Yangtze River estuary, China

Yifan Wang; Ruimin Liu; Yuexi Miao; Lijun Jiao; Leiping Cao; Lin Li; Qingrui Wang

doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112003

Identification and uncertainty analysis of high-risk areas of heavy metals in sediments of the Yangtze River estuary, China

Mar Pollut Bull. 2021 Mar:164:112003. doi: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112003. Epub 2021 Jan 22.

Authors

Yifan Wang¹, Ruimin Liu², Yuexi Miao¹, Lijun Jiao¹, Leiping Cao¹, Lin Li¹, Qingrui Wang¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China.
² State Key Laboratory of Water Environment Simulation, School of Environment, Beijing Normal University, No. 19, Xinjiekouwai Street, Beijing 100875, China. Electronic address: liurm@bnu.edu.cn.

PMID: 33493857
DOI: 10.1016/j.marpolbul.2021.112003

Abstract

In this study, ordinary kriging (OK) and indicator kriging (IK) were used to analyze the uncertainty associated with high-risk areas of seven heavy metals (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, and Zn) in sediments of the Yangtze River estuary during four seasons. The OK results showed that the high-risk areas of Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, and Pb had a high proportion, with the highest corresponding to Cr pollution (up to 60%). Predictions based on IK revealed that the proportion of high-risk areas of Cr, Cd, and Hg pollution were high, especially that of Cr was higher than 90%. However, there were uncertainties between the OK and IK results. The uncertainty results revealed that the uncertainty areas of Cr pollution were relatively large, accounting for about 30%, while those of Cd, Cu, and Hg pollution were lower than 10%.

Keywords: Heavy metal pollution; High-risk area; Indicator kriging; Ordinary kriging; Uncertainty.

MeSH terms

China
Environmental Monitoring
Estuaries
Geologic Sediments
Metals, Heavy* / analysis
Risk Assessment
Rivers
Uncertainty
Water Pollutants, Chemical* / analysis

Substances

Metals, Heavy
Water Pollutants, Chemical