Heavy metal concentrations of agricultural soils and vegetables from Dongguan, Guangdong

doi:10.1007/s11442-010-0121-1

Abstract

Abstract:

A total of 118 of agricultural soil and 43 of vegetable samples were collected from Dongguan City, Guangdong, China. The spatial distribution, sources, accumulation characteristics and potential risk of heavy metals in the agricultural soils and vegetables were depicted in details by three different approaches, including total contents of eight metal elements in soils and vegetables, GIS maps and multivariate analysis of heavy metals in soils in the study. The results show that there are higher accumulation of heavy metals such as Cu, Zn, Ni, Pb, Cd and Hg in agricultural soils, and the contents of Pb (65.38 mg kg?1) and Hg (0.24 mg kg?1) are 1.82 and 2.82 times of the background contents of the corresponding heavy metals in soils of Guangdong Province, respectively. There are about 3.4% of Cu, 5.9% of Ni, 1.7% of Cd and 28% of Hg in all collected soil samples from all investigated sites which have overran the contents for heavy metals of the China Environmental Quality Standard for Soils (GB15618-1995, Grade Ⅱ). The pollution characteristics of multi-metals in soils are mainly reflected by Hg. There are different sources to eight metal elements in soils, Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr and As are predominantly derived from parent materials, and Pb, Hg and Cd are affected by anthropogenic activities. The spatial distribution shows that the Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr, Pb, As and Hg contents of agricultural soils are high in the west and low in the east, and Cd contents are high in the northwest, southeast and low in the southwest in Dongguan. The ratios of vegetable samples which Ni, Pb and As concentrations higher than the Maximum Levels of Contaminants in Foods (GB2762-2005) are 4.7%, 16.3% and 48.8%, respectively. The order of bio-concentration factors (BCF) of heavy metals in vegetables is Cd > Zn > Cu > As > Ni > Hg > Cr > Pb. It is necessary to focus on potential risk of heavy metals for food safety and human’s health from agricultural soils and vegetables in Dongguan City, Guangdong Province.

Key words: agricultural soil, vegetable, heavy metal, pollution, spatial distribution, DongguanSciences

CAI Limei, HUANG Lanchun, ZHOU Yongzhang, XU Zhencheng, PENG Xiaochun, YAO Ling'ai, ZHOU Yang, PENG Ping'an. Heavy metal concentrations of agricultural soils and vegetables from Dongguan, Guangdong[J].Journal of Geographical Sciences, 2010, 20(1): 121-134.

References

[1] Boruvka L, Vacek O, Jehlicka J, 2005. Principal component analysis as a tool to indicate the origin of potentially toxic elements in soils. Geoderma, 128: 289–300.

[2] Chen Tongbin, Song Bo, Zheng Yuanming et al., 2006. A survey of arsenic concentrations in vegetables and soils in Beijing and the potential risks to human health. Acta Pedologica Sinica, 61(3): 297–310. (in Chinese)

[3] Chen Tongbin, Zhen Xibo, Hu Qingxiu, 2002. Utilization efficiency of chemical fertilizers among different countries of China. Acta Pedologica Sinica, 57(5): 531–538. (in Chinese)

[4] Chen Tongbin, Zheng Yuanming, Chen Huang et al., 2005. Arsenic accumulation in soils for different land use types in Beijing. Geographical Research, 24(2): 229–235. (in Chinese)

[5] DCSB (Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Statistics), 2005. Dongguan Statistical Year Book. Beijing: China Statistics Press, 68. (in Chinese)

[6] DCSB (Dongguan Municipal Bureau of Statistics), 2007. Dongguan Statistical Year Book. Beijing: China Statistics Press, 68. (in Chinese)

[7] Facchinelli A, Sacchi E, Mallen L, 2001. Multivariate statistical and GIS-based approach to identify heavy metal sources in soils. Environmental Pollution, 114: 313–324.

[8] Filzek P D B, Spurgeon D J, Broll G et al., 2004. Pedological characterization of sites along a transect from a primary cadmium/lead/zinc smelting works. Ecotoxicology, 13: 725–737.

[9] Garcia R, Maiz I, Millan E, 1996. Heavy metal contamination analysis of road soils and grasses from Gipuzkoa (Spain). Environmental Technology, 17(7): 763–770.

[10] GPEMC (Guangdong Province Environmental Monitoring Centre), 1990. Handbook of Data for Environmental Background Values of Guangdong. Beijing: China Environment Science Press. (in Chinese)

[11] Gray C W, McLaren R G, Roberts A H C et al., 1999. The effect of long-term phosphatic fertiliser applications on the amounts and forms of cadmium in soils under pasture in New Zealand. Nutrient Cycling in Agroecosystems, 54: 267–277.

[12] Guo Zhaohui, Xiao Xiyuan, Chen Tongbin et al., 2008, Heavy metal pollution of soils and vegetables from midstream and downstream of Xiangjiang River. Acta Pedologica Sinica, 63(1): 3–11. (in Chinese)

[13] Hanesch M, Scholger R, Dekkers M J, 2001. The application of fuzzy cluster analysis and non-linear mapping to a soil data set for detection of polluted sites. Physical Chemical Earth Science, 26: 885–891.

[14] Lee C S, Li X, Shi W et al., 2006. Metal contamination in urban, suburban, and country park soils of Hong Kong: A study based on GIS and multivariate statistics. Science of the Total Environment, 356(1–3): 45–61.

[15] Liu Fengzhi, 2001. Manual of Environmental Monitoring for Agriculture. Beijing: China Standards Press. (in Chinese)

[16] Liu H Y, Probst A, Liao B H, 2005. Metal contamination of soils and crops affected by the Chenzhou lead/zinc mine spill (Hunan/China). Science of the Total Environment, 339: 153–166.

[17] Liu Qing, Wang Jing, Shi Yanxi et al., 2007. Heavy metal pollution in cropland soil in Cixi city of Zhejiang province. Journal of Agro-environment Science, 26(2): 639–644. (in Chinese)

[18] Loska L, Wiechula D, 2003. Application of principal component analysis for the estimation of source of heavy metal contamination in surface sediments from the Rybnik Reservoir. Chemosphere, 51: 723–733.

[19] Martin J A R, Arias M L, Corbi J M G, 2006. Heavy metals contents in agricultural topsoils in the Ebro basin (Spain). Application of the multivariate geostatistical methods to study spatial variations. Environmental Pollution, 144 (3): 1001–1021.

[20] Ministry of Health, PRC, 1991. Tolerance Limit of Zinc (GB13106-91) in Foods. Beijing: Standards Press of China. (in Chinese)

[21] Ministry of Health, PRC, 1991. Tolerance Limit of Copper (GB15119-94) in Foods. Beijing: Standards Press of China. (in Chinese)

[22] Ministry of Health, PRC, 2005. National Committee of Standardization. The Maximum Levels of Contaminants in Foods (GB2762-2005). Beijing: Standards Press of China. (in Chinese)

[23] Ociel M, Oscar P D, Irma L et al., 2002. Vegetables collected in the cultivated Andean area of northern Chile: Total and inorganic arsenic contents in raw vegetables. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 50: 642–647.

[24] Oscar P D, Irma L, Ociel M et al., 2004. Contribution of water, bread, and vegetables (raw and cooked) to dietary intake of inorganic arsenic in a rural village of northern Chile. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 52: 1773–1779.

[25] SEPAC (State Environmental Protection Administration of China), 1995. Environmental Quality Standard for Soils (GB15618-1995). Beijing: Standards Press of China. (in Chinese)

[26] Song Bo, Chen Tongbin, Zheng Yuanming et al., 2006. A survey of cadmium concentrations in vegetables and soils in Beijing and the potential risks to human health. Acta Scientiae Circumstantiae, 26(8): 1343–1353. (in Chinese)

[27] Zhang Chaosheng, Zhang Shen, He Jianbang, 1997. Spatial distribution characteristics of heavy metals in the sediments of Changjiang River system. Acta Pedologica Sinica, 52(2): 184–192. (in Chinese)

[28] Zheng Yuanming, Chen Tongbin, Chen Huang et al., 2005a. Lead accumulation in soils under different land use types in Beijing city. Acta Geographica Sinica, 60(5): 791–797. (in Chinese)

[29] Zheng Yuanming, Chen Tongbin, Zheng Guodi et al., 2005b. Soil copper accumulation under different land use types: The case of Beijing. Journal of Natural Resources, 20(5): 690–696. (in Chinese)

[30] Zheng Yuanming, Chen Tongbin, Zheng Guodi et al., 2005c. Chromium and nickel accumulations in soils under different land uses in Beijing Municipality. Resources Science, 27(6): 162–166. (in Chinese)

[31] Zheng Yuanming, Luo Jinfa, Chen Tongbin et al., 2005d. Cadmium accumulation in soils for different land uses in Beijing. Geographical Research, 24(4): 542–548. (in Chinese)

[32] Zheng Yuanming, Song Bo, Chen Tongbin et al., 2006. Zinc accumulation and pollution risk in soils under different land use types in Beijing. Journal of Natural Resources, 21(1): 64–72. (in Chinese)