Abstract
Heavy metal (HM) accumulation in farmland soil can be transferred to the human body through the food chain, posing a serious threat to human health. Exploring the environmental risk and safe utilization zoning of soil HMs in farmland can provide the basis for the formulation of effective control strategies. Soil samples from typical subtropical farmland were collected in Jinhua City and analyzed for HMs (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn). The objective of this study was to explore the spatial distribution and environmental risk of soil HMs, and then divide the safe utilization area of soil HMs of farmland in Jinhua City. The results showed that the mean concentrations of soil HMs were, in descending order: Zn (76.05 mg kg−1) > Cr (36.73 mg kg−1) > Pb (32.48 mg kg−1) > Cu (18.60 mg kg−1) > Ni (11.95 mg kg−1) > As (6.37 mg kg−1) > Cd (0.18 mg kg−1) > Hg (0.11 mg kg−1), and all determined soil HMs did not exceed the risk screening values for soil contamination of agricultural land of China. The fitted semi-variogram showed that the spatial autocorrelation of Cd, Hg, Pb, and Zn was weak, with island-shaped distribution, while As, Cr, Cu, and Ni had medium spatial autocorrelation, with strip-shaped and island-shaped distribution. The hot spot analysis and environmental risk probability showed that the environmental risks of As, Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, and Cu were relatively high, whereas those of Cr, Hg, and Ni were relatively low. Safe utilization zones and basic safe utilization zones accounted for 89.35% and 8.58% of the total farmland area in Jinhua, respectively, and only a small part of the farmland soil was at risk of use.
Highlights
Soil is one of the most important natural resources for human survival and development, and it is the source and sink of many pollutants [1,2]
The main objectives of this research were to (1) explore the spatial variability and distribution characteristics of Heavy metal (HM) in farmland soils in the study area; (2) identify the environmental risks of HMs in farmland soils in the study area; (3) carry out safe utilization zoning of HMs in farmland soil based on the influence index of comprehensive quality of soil (IICQs)
Kurtosis and skewness indicated that the distribution of soil HMs in the study area was a skewed distribution
Summary
Soil is one of the most important natural resources for human survival and development, and it is the source and sink of many pollutants [1,2]. Many assessment methods were proposed for measuring soil HMs pollution, such as the single pollution index [20], Nemerow index [21], geo-accumulation index [22], pollution load index [23], potential ecological risk index [24], enrichment factor index [25], etc. These methods are either not able to comprehensively reflect HMs pollution in soil, or may be subjective.
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