Abstract:
The Xiangjiang River flows through the main urban area with high densities of population in Zunyi City. Heavy metals from domestic sewage, industrial and agricultural activities in the watershed flow into the Xiangjiang River. In order to explore the distribution characteristics of heavy metal pollution and to evaluate potential ecological risks, a modified BCR sequential extraction procedure was used to analyze the speciation distributions of Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, Cr, Mn, Ni, As, and Hg in eight surface sediment samplings from the Xiangjiang River in Zunyi City. The
w(Cu),
w(Zn),
w(Pb),
w(Cd),
w(Cr),
w(Mn) and
w(Ni) were analyzed by using inductively coupled plasma atom emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). The
w(As) and
w(Hg) were measured by the atomic fluorophotometer. The results showed that:(1) The average
w(Cu),
w(Zn),
w(Pb),
w(Cd),
w(Cr),
w(Mn),
w(Ni),
w(As), and
w(Hg) were 64.89, 313.75, 75.93, 1.44, 93.95, 1507.98, 33.74, 13.50 and 0.68 mg/kg, respectively. All average concentrations of heavy metals exceeded the background levels in Guizhou Province, except fo As. (2) The coefficients of variation of
w(Cu),
w(Zn),
w(Pb),
w(Cd),
w(Mn), and
w(Hg) in different sampling sites were 54.91%, 93.33%, 78.73%, 85.00%, 106.46% and 93.44%, respectively, which was greatly influenced by human activities. There were significant positive correlations between Cu and Cr, Zn and Pb, Cd and Pb (
P < 0.01). The heavy metals might come from the same source of pollution. (3) There were significant differences in speciation distribution of heavy metals between different sampling sites. The analysis of chemical speciation indicated that Cu, Pb, Cr, Ni, As, and Hg were mainly dominated by the residual fraction, and their average ratios in the total heavy metals were 52.72%, 59.31%, 84.39%, 79.09%, 89.14% and 99.87%, respectively. Mn mainly existed in acid-soluble extraction, the average ratio of which was 61.58%. Cd was mainly constituted of oxidizable fraction, the average ratio of which was 50.19%. The results of ratio of secondary phase to primary phase (RSP) assessment showed that Cr, Ni, As, and Hg showed lower potential ecological risk, while Mn and Cd showed higher potential ecological risk.