Premium
Assessment of Heavy Metal Contamination of Wetland Soils from a Typical Aquatic–Terrestrial Ecotone in Haihe River Basin, North China
Author(s) -
Xiao Rong,
Bai Junhong,
Wang Qinggai,
Gao Haifeng,
Huang Laibin,
Liu Xinhui
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
clean – soil, air, water
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.444
H-Index - 66
eISSN - 1863-0669
pISSN - 1863-0650
DOI - 10.1002/clen.201000255
Subject(s) - ecotone , contamination , environmental science , soil water , wetland , pollution , environmental chemistry , soil contamination , hydrology (agriculture) , surface water , ecology , environmental engineering , geology , soil science , chemistry , biology , geotechnical engineering , shrub
Surface soils were collected in the aquatic–terrestrial ecotone (ATE) of Yongnianwa wetland, downstream of Haihe River basin of North China in June of 2007. Samples were subjected to a total digestion technique before they were analyzed for total concentrations of Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn to investigate their pollution levels in the ATE. The contamination index, integrated contamination index, geoaccumulation index, toxic units, and sum of toxic units were adopted to assess the heavy metal contamination levels and ecotoxicity, respectively. The results showed all the selected element concentrations in upland soils of the ecotone were relatively higher than those in the lowland soils. No Cr pollution was observed in all soil samples, but almost all samples were slightly polluted by Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn except for Site 1. The contamination indexes and geoaccumulation indexes consistently presented no contamination for Site 1 and slight contamination for other sites. The ΣTUs increased from lowland to upland, but the whole level of toxicity in this ecotone was relatively low.