XIA Jiandong1, LONG Jinyun1, GAO Yaping1, CHEN Yue3, MENG Jing2, ZHOU Yunqiao2, CHEN Shuqin1,2
（1.School of Resource and Environment, Anqing Normal University, Anqing 246133, China;
2.State Key Laboratory of Urban and Regional Ecology, Research Center for Eco-Environmental Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100085, China;
3.School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Chang’An University, Xi’an 710021, China )
Abstract: In order to elucidate the status of heavy metal pollution and quantitatively apportion sources of heavy metals in sediments of the Chaohu Lake, contents of Cu, Zn, Pb, Ni, Cr, Cd, As and Hg in sediments, which were obtained by the fixed-point sampling method from the Chaohu Lake during the period of 2015 to 2017, were analyzed. The spatial distributions and the potential ecological risks of these heavy metals were studied by Inverse Distance Weighted (IDW) and Risk Assessment Coding (RAC) methods, and the sources of heavy metals were analyzed by the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model. The results showed that the average value of As in sediments of the Chaohu Lake was higher than the soil risk screening value of the alkaline paddy field specified in GB15618, Zn had a higher potential risk due to its high bioavailable form. The spatial distributions of all studied metals in sediments of the Chaohu Lake were consistent with distances of their sampling locations to the surrounding traffic lines, specifically, contents of metals were high in the east and the west regions and low in the middle of the Chaohu Lake. According to PMF results, heavy metals in sediments of the Chaohu Lake mainly came from 4 sources, that is, traffic sources (43%), natural sources (27%), agricultural sources (18%), and industrial sources (12%). The traffic source contributed the most, and the contribution of natural sources was higher than that of agricultural and industrial sources, indicating that, currently, the Chaohu Lake was in the initial stage of urbanization and its heavy metal pollution level was relatively low. However, with the expansion and the degree of the urbanization increasing, the risk of heavy metals in sediments of the Chaohu Lake will be increasing.
Key words: Chaohu lake; heavy metals; spatial distribution characteristics; source analysis
EARTH AND ENVIRONMENT Vol.48, No.2, Tot No.334, 2020, Page 220-227
