Multivariate-statistical assessment of heavy metals for agricultural soils in northern China.

Pingguo Yang,Renzhao Mao,Hongbo Shao,Miao Yang

doi:10.1155/2014/517020

Abstract

The study evaluated eight heavy metals content and soil pollution from agricultural soils in northern China. Multivariate and geostatistical analysis approaches were used to determine the anthropogenic and natural contribution of soil heavy metal concentrations. Single pollution index and integrated pollution index could be used to evaluate soil heavy metal risk. The results show that the first factor explains 27.3% of the eight soil heavy metals with strong positive loadings on Cu, Zn, and Cd, which indicates that Cu, Zn, and Cd are associated with and controlled by anthropic activities. The average value of heavy metal is lower than the second grade standard values of soil environmental quality standards in China. Single pollution index is lower than 1, and the Nemerow integrated pollution index is 0.305, which means that study area has not been polluted. The semivariograms of soil heavy metal single pollution index fitted spherical and exponential models. The variable ratio of single pollution index showed moderately spatial dependence. Heavy metal contents showed relative safety in the study area.

Highlights

Soils are critical environments where rock, biology, air, and water interface
Soil pollution has become an important environmental issue in China owing to rapid economic development and industrialization and increasing reliance on agrochemicals in the last few decades [1,2,3]
The ecological importance of soil heavy metals is closely related to human health due to their high ecological transference potential

Summary

Introduction

Soils are critical environments where rock, biology, air, and water interface. Soil pollution has become an important environmental issue in China owing to rapid economic development and industrialization and increasing reliance on agrochemicals in the last few decades [1,2,3]. Soil heavy metal contents are the serious environmental issue and frequency related to agricultural soil utilization problem [4,5,6]. Soil heavy metals could be necessary or beneficial to plants at certain levels but toxic when exceeding specific threshold [7,8,9,10,11]. If these elements are absorbed by the plants through the root system, they may enter the food chain and become toxic to humans and animals. The ecological importance of soil heavy metals is closely related to human health due to their high ecological transference potential

Methods

Results

Conclusion