The spatial distribution and source apportionment of heavy metals in soil of Shizuishan, China

Abstract

Abstract Environmental pollution of heavy metals in a typical coal industrial city should be paid more attentions nowadays. The spatial distribution and source apportionment of 8 heavy metals (i.e., Cd, Cr, Co, Zn, Ni, Cu, Pb and Mn) from topsoil (158) of Shizuishan city in Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region of China were investigated using principal component analysis/absolute principal component scores (PCA/APCS) receptor model and the geostatistics analysis. These results showed that the mean concentrations of Cd, Cr, Co, Zn, Ni, Cu and Pb were higher than their soil background values in Ningxia. 99.36% of soil was heavily polluted according to analysis of integrated Nemerow pollution index (PN), whereas 81.65% of soil exhibited the highly strong potential ecological risk by ERI (the comprehensive of potential ecological risk index) values. The source apportionment results showed that 8 heavy metals in soil were mainly from natural(32.39%), industrial (26.56%), traffic emission/coal consumption(20.18%) and atmospheric deposition source(12.73%). Typically, Zn, Mn and Ni were derived from natural source, whereas Cr and Co mainly derived from industrial sources. Cu was from the multiple sources, whereas Pb and Cd was weighted primarily from traffic emission/coal consumption source and atmospheric deposition source, respectively. These findings are crucial for the prevention and control of heavy metal pollution in Shizuishan city.