Heavy metals pollution and potential ecological risk assessment in farmland soils from typical mining area: a case study

ABSTRACT

The research aimed to investigate HMS, utilizing the Pearson correlation coefficient for speciation distribution analysis, PCA for assessing pollution characteristics and identifying sources, the Muller index to evaluate ecological risk level, and the Hakanson potential ecological risk index to determine the order of risk from heavy metals. The topsoil near SA was collected, and the contents of seven kinds of HMS, As, Cd, Pb, Zn, Ni, Cu and Cr were determined, so as to evaluate the types of high-risk heavy metal pollution further accurately. The research recorded valuable data showing that the concentration values of all seven HMS in the investigated area exceeded prescribed agricultural soil contamination limits. The concentrations of As, Cd, and Pb were found to be 8.30, 46.20, and 6.08 times higher than the screening values in Hunan Province, respectively. In the GYB sampling area, the coefficient of variation (CV) values for Cu, Pb, As, Zn, and Cd are all between 0.50 and 1.00. Notably, the CV value for Cd reaches 0.82, indicating a significant variation. Significant correlations were found between Cd and Zn (Cd-Zn), Pb and Zn (Pb-Zn), Ni and Cr (Ni-Cr) in the tested soils. The ecological risk index (${\mathrm{E}}_{\mathrm{r}}^{\mathrm{i}}$) results showed that Cd was the primary pollutant in the study area, with the potential ecological hazards in the tested soils ranked as Cd>As>Pb>Cu>Zn>Ni>Cr. Combining both evaluation methods, the study area’s potential ecological risk order is SZY>GYB>CTL.

KEYWORDS:

• Lead-zinc mining area
• soil
• heavy metals
• ecological risk
• pollution assessment

Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Natural Science Foundation of China (41173113, 41473122).

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/15567036.2023.2259855.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) grants [No.41473122, 41173113].

Notes on contributors

Yuhuan Li

Yuhuan Li was born in September 1990. Since 2018, she has been pursuing a Ph. D degree at the School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science & Technology Beijing, PR China. Her research areas include soil heavy metal pollution control, biomass catalytic pyrolysis, and porous material synthesis.

Xin Sui

Xin Sui was born in 1994. Since 2018, she has been pursuing a Ph. D degree at the School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science & Technology Beijing, PR China. Her research area is the microbial degradation of petroleum-contaminated soil.

Xuemei Wang

Xuemei Wang is currently a full associate Professor at the School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science & Technology Beijing, PR China. Her research area is solid waste utilization and sustainable environmental sanitation and drainage technologies.

Hongbing Ji

Hongbing Ji is currently a full Professor at the School of Energy and Environmental Engineering, University of Science & Technology Beijing, PR China. He is a researcher dedicated to the field of environmental science. His primary research areas include soil, groundwater contamination and remediation technologies, biogeochemistry, biotechnology development, environmental functional materials, and ecotoxicology. He is committed to finding solutions for soil and groundwater pollution and studying the impact of organisms on geochemical processes. In addition, he explores the development and application of environmental functional materials and investigates the toxic effects of chemicals on organisms and ecosystems. His research also involves exploring environmental processes and tracing methods to better protect the environment and promote sustainable development.