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cje ›› 2011, Vol. 30 ›› Issue (09): 1993-2001.

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Heavy metal pollution and its ecological risk assessment of riparian soils.

HE Wen-ming1,3, WU Feng2, ZHANG Chang-sheng2,3, ZHANG Quan-fa1**   

  1. 1 Key Laboratory of Aquatic Botany and Watershed Ecology, Wuhan Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Wuhan 410074, China;2 Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi’an 710075, China;3Graduate University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China
  • Online:2011-09-08 Published:2011-09-08

Abstract: Riparian soil samples were collected from forest-dominated Jinshui River basin, a tributary of the upper Hanjiang River, to determine the total contents of several heavy metals in soil and the ion contents in soil water solution. Pollution index and ecological risk index were used to evaluate the riparian soils heavy metals pollution. Within the basin, riparian soils heavy metals pollution was from moderate to severe, and the ecological risk was from minor to moderate. Among different land use types, flood plain had the highest contents of soil V (130.89 mg·kg-1) and Cr (363.29 mg·kg-1), whereas grassland had the highest contents of soil Ni (32.52 mg·kg-1), Pb (24.61 mg·kg-1), Ti (4378.09 mg·kg-1), Mn (1289.62 mg·kg-1), Zn (91.44 mg·kg-1), and Cu (29.71 mg·kg-1), mainly due to the effective adsorption and accumulation of these heavy metals by the flood plain and grassland soils and the increasing human activities. The Cr, Pb, and Zn contents in the riparian soils were over the limits of National Standard (GB 15618-1995). In addition, the albic brown earth and calcic-skeletol soil in flood plain had high content of calcium carbonate which had strong capability in adsorbing and solidifying Pb and Zn. The heavy metals pollution of the riparian soils increased the potential risk of regional ecosystem and agriculture security. It would be important to increase soil humus content to alleviate the pollution and enhance the soil self-purification.

Key words: Pasture ecosystem, Growth rate, Consumption rate, Cumulative biomass consumption