Spatial variability of eight hazardous heavy metals in agricultural topsoils: a case study from Xuzhou area, Jiangsu, China

ABSTRACT

Understanding the concentration of agricultural topsoil heavy metals and their spatial variability is crucial in terms of keeping a close track of the quality of regional environment. In this study, a total of 139 sites were sampled from the agricultural topsoils in Xuzhou area, Jiangsu, China. The contents of eight hazardous heavy metals (Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cr, Hg, As, Cd) were measured for each soil sample. We used semivariogram to study the spatial patterns of these heavy metals, and obtained their spatial distribution maps in Xuzhou area. The descriptive statistics and the correlation between each heavy metal were examined. Our data show that the concentrations of all eight hazardous heavy metals do not exceed the threshold values that are recommended in the national soil quality standard (GB15618–2018). These new results provide a useful basis for the policy design regarding the agriculture, industry, topsoil contamination treatment, and regional environment in this region.

KEYWORDS:

• Agricultural topsoils
• heavy metals
• spatial distribution
• spatial variability
• Xuzhou
• China

Acknowledgments

This study is supported by Grants KC17155 and NYKJ8067. We thank the constructive comments from anonymous reviewers.

Disclosure statement

There are no relevant financial or non-financial competing interests to report.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Grants KC17155 and NYKJ8067 [Grants KC17155 and NYKJ8067].