IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v16y2019i22p4313-d284094.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Heavy Metals in Sediment from the Urban and Rural Rivers in Harbin City, Northeast China

Author

Listed:
  • Song Cui

    (International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), School of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China)

  • Fuxiang Zhang

    (International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), School of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China)

  • Peng Hu

    (State Key Laboratory of Simulation and Regulation of Water Cycle in River Basin, China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, Beijing 100038, China)

  • Rupert Hough

    (The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK)

  • Qiang Fu

    (International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), School of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China)

  • Zulin Zhang

    (The James Hutton Institute, Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen AB15 8QH, UK)

  • Lihui An

    (State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Estuarine and Coastal Research, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China)

  • Yi-Fan Li

    (IJRC-PTS, State Key Laboratory of Urban Water Resource and Environment, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin 150090, China)

  • Kunyang Li

    (International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), School of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China)

  • Dong Liu

    (International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), School of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China)

  • Pengyu Chen

    (International Joint Research Center for Persistent Toxic Substances (IJRC-PTS), School of Water Conservancy and Civil Engineering, Northeast Agricultural University, Harbin 150030, China)

Abstract

The concentrations and ecological risk of six widespread heavy metals (Cu, Cr, Ni, Zn, Cd and Pb) were investigated and evaluated in sediments from both urban and rural rivers in a northeast city of China. The decreasing trend of the average concentration of heavy metals was Zn > Cr > Cu > Pb > Ni > Cd in Majiagou River (urban) and was Zn > Cr > Pb > Cu > Ni > Cd in Yunliang River (rural). The results showed that the concentrations of Cd and Zn were significantly elevated compared to the environmental background value ( p < 0.05). Half of all sampling locations were deemed ‘contaminated’ as defined by the improved Nemerow pollution index ( P N ’ > 1.0). Applying the potential ecological risk index ( RI ) indicated a ‘high ecological risk’ for both rivers, with Cd accounting for more than 80% in both cases. Source apportionment indicated a significant correlation between Cd and Zn in sediments ( R = 0.997, p < 0.01) in Yunliang River, suggesting that agricultural activities could be the major sources. Conversely, industrial production, coal burning, natural sources and traffic emissions are likely to be the main pollution sources for heavy metals in Majiagou River. This study has improved our understanding of how human activities, industrial production, and agricultural production influence heavy metal pollution in urban and rural rivers, and it provides a further weight of evidence for the linkages between different pollutants and resulting levels of heavy metals in riverine sediments.

Suggested Citation

  • Song Cui & Fuxiang Zhang & Peng Hu & Rupert Hough & Qiang Fu & Zulin Zhang & Lihui An & Yi-Fan Li & Kunyang Li & Dong Liu & Pengyu Chen, 2019. "Heavy Metals in Sediment from the Urban and Rural Rivers in Harbin City, Northeast China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 16(22), pages 1-15, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:22:p:4313-:d:284094
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4313/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/22/4313/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Kunyang Li & Song Cui & Fuxiang Zhang & Rupert Hough & Qiang Fu & Zulin Zhang & Shang Gao & Lihui An, 2020. "Concentrations, Possible Sources and Health Risk of Heavy Metals in Multi-Media Environment of the Songhua River, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(5), pages 1-16, March.
    2. Michał Fiedler, 2023. "Long-Term Changes in the Pollution of Warta River Bottom Sediments with Heavy Metals, Poland—Case Study," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 20(10), pages 1-22, May.
    3. Guoqi Lian & Xinqing Lee, 2021. "Concentrations, Distribution, and Pollution Assessment of Metals in River Sediments in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(13), pages 1-20, June.
    4. Bingyan Jin & Jinling Wang & Wei Lou & Liren Wang & Jinlong Xu & Yanfang Pan & Jianbiao Peng & Dexin Liu, 2022. "Pollution, Ecological Risk and Source Identification of Heavy Metals in Sediments from the Huafei River in the Eastern Suburbs of Kaifeng, China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(18), pages 1-15, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:22:p:4313-:d:284094. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.