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

Abstract

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 () 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.