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Source apportionment of heavy metals in sediments of the urban rivers flowing into Haizhou Bay, Eastern China: using multivariate statistical analyses and Pb-Sr isotope fingerprints

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Abstract

Urban river runoff carrying various anthropogenic sources of heavy metals (HMs) is the most important input pathways for HM pollutions in the coastal region, apportioning sources of environmental pollutants is key to controlling coastal HM pollution. In the study, surface sediments were collected from seven urban rivers flowing through Lianyungang City and discharging into Haizhou Bay, Eastern China. The concentrations of HMs of the river sediments were, in mg/kg (mean value ± standard deviation): Mn (550 ± 227) > Zn (67 ± 61) > Cr (33 ± 12) > Ni (21 ± 8.5) > Cu (16 ± 7.6) > Pb (15 ± 5.6) > Cd (0.11 ± 0.06), which were slightly to moderately polluted. As important outlets for municipal and industrial sewages, the Shawang River and Linhong River were the most polluted. Based on the multivariate statistical analysis, HMs were attributed to anthropogenic source (industrial, domestic, and agricultural discharges) and natural source (soil parent materials and atmospheric deposition). Based on isotope source apportionment, Pb was mainly from natural source, exhausts of leaded gasoline vehicles, and coal combustion, with the mean contributions of 39.3%, 23.7%, and 37.0%, respectively, and Sr originated from natural source and anthropogenic source, with mean contributions of 31.8% and 68.2%, respectively. Pb-Sr isotopes illustrated that anthropogenic inputs were the dominant source for HMs in urban river sediments flowing into Haizhou Bay, and the isotope tracing results make up the discriminating deficiency of the multivariate statistical analysis.

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Acknowledgements

This work was jointly supported by the Marine Special Program of Jiangsu Province in China (No. JSZRHYKJ202007), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. U1901215, 41771218, and 41271228), and the Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST (No. 2020r047).

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article and its supplementary information files.

Funding

Marine Special Program of Jiangsu Province in China (No.): JSZRHYKJ202007.

National Natural Science Foundation of China (No.): U1901215, 41771218, and 41271228.

Startup Foundation for Introducing Talent of NUIST (No.): 2020r047.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Xiaoqian Deng, Yuling Wu, Ye Liang, Longjiang Mao & Yuanzhi Zhang

  2. School of Environmental and Chemical Engineering, Xi’an Polytechnic University, Xi’an, 710048, China

    Zhihai Tan & Wanzhu Feng

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  1. Xiaoqian Deng
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  2. Yuling Wu
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Longjiang Mao, Yuling Wu;

Methodology: Zhihai Tan, Wanzhu Feng;

Formal analysis and investigation: Xiaoqian Deng, Longjiang Mao;

Writing-original draft preparation: Xiaoqian Deng;

Writing-review and editing: Yuling Wu, Ye Liang;

Funding acquisition: Longjiang Mao, Yuling Wu;

Resources: Longjiang Mao, Yuanzhi Zhang;

Supervision: Yuling Wu, Longjiang Mao, Yuanzhi Zhang.

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Correspondence to Yuling Wu or Longjiang Mao.

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Deng, X., Wu, Y., Liang, Y. et al. Source apportionment of heavy metals in sediments of the urban rivers flowing into Haizhou Bay, Eastern China: using multivariate statistical analyses and Pb-Sr isotope fingerprints. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 36354–36366 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-021-13287-w

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