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Study on the relationship between hydrodynamic conditions and arsenic content in Quaternary sediments

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Abstract

Groundwater is susceptible to arsenic contamination by sediment with high arsenic content, which is the primary culprit of regional arsenic pollution and poisoning. To explore the influence of the change in hydrodynamic conditions caused by changes in the sedimentary environment over time on arsenic content in sediments during the Quaternary, the hydrodynamic characteristics and arsenic content enrichment of borehole sediments were studied in typical high-arsenic groundwater areas of the Jianghan–Dongting Basin, China. The regional hydrodynamic conditions represented by each borehole location were analyzed, the correlation between the variation in groundwater dynamics characteristics and arsenic content in different hydrodynamic periods was analyzed, and the relationship between arsenic content and grain size distribution was quantitatively investigated using grain size parameter calculation, elemental analysis, and statistical estimates of arsenic content in borehole sediments. We observed that the relationship between arsenic content and hydrodynamic conditions differed between sedimentary periods. Furthermore, arsenic content in the sediments from the borehole at Xinfei Village was significantly and positively correlated with a grain size of 127.0–240.0 μm. For the borehole at Wuai Village, arsenic content was significantly and positively correlated with a grain size of 1.38–9.82 μm size (at 0.05 level of significance). However, arsenic content was inversely correlated with grain sizes of 110.99–716.87 and 133.75–282.07 μm at p values of 0.05 and 0.01, respectively. For the borehole at Fuxing Water Works, arsenic content was significantly and positively correlated with a grain size of 409.6–655.0 μm size (at 0.05 level of significance). Arsenic tended to be enriched in transitional and turbidity facies sediments with normal corresponding hydrodynamic strength but poor sorting. Furthermore, continuous and stable sedimentary sequences were conducive to arsenic enrichment. Fine-grain sediments provided abundant potential adsorption sites for high-arsenic sediments, but finer particle size was not correlated with higher arsenic levels.

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Funding

This study was jointly supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 41772268), Major Science and Technology Projects of Ministry of Water Resources of China (SKS-2022062), Key R&D and Promotion Projects of Henan Province: Scientific Research (212102311150), and Independent Research and Development Project of YREC.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Water Management and Water Security for Yellow River Basin, Ministry of Water Resources (Under Construction), Yellow River Engineering Consulting Co., Ltd. (YREC), Zhengzhou, 450003, China

    Liqun Sun, Weifeng Wan, Qiushi Luo, Fengwei Yang & Zhiyu Song

  2. School of Environmental Studies, China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, 430078, China

    Xin Zhang, Xing Liang & Menggui Jin

  3. No. 7 Geological Team, Henan Nonferrous Metals Geological and Mineral Bureau, Zhengzhou, 450016, China

    Lewei He

Authors
  1. Liqun Sun
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  2. Weifeng Wan
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  3. Qiushi Luo
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  4. Fengwei Yang
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  5. Zhiyu Song
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  6. Xin Zhang
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  7. Xing Liang
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  8. Menggui Jin
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  9. Lewei He
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Contributions

LS helped in conceptualization, methodology, investigation, and writing—original draft preparation; WW contributed to writing—original draft preparation, and writing—reviewing and editing; QL helped in investigation and software; FY and ZS helped in conceptualization and methodology; XZ contributed to data curation and resources; XL performed funding acquisition and supervision; MJ was involved in formal analysis; and LH contributed to writing—reviewing and editing.

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Correspondence to Xing Liang.

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The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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Sun, L., Wan, W., Luo, Q. et al. Study on the relationship between hydrodynamic conditions and arsenic content in Quaternary sediments. Environ Geochem Health 45, 4703–4717 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01532-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-023-01532-9

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