IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v18y2021i21p11243-d665123.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Pollution Status of Heavy Metals in the Surface Seawater and Sediments of the Tianjin Coastal Area, North China

Author

Listed:
  • Xuemeng Han

    (College of Marine and Environmental Sciences, Tianjin University of Science & Technology, Tianjin 300457, China
    State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China)

  • Junqiang Wang

    (State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
    Technical Centre for Soil, Agriculture and Rural Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China)

  • Wenqian Cai

    (State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China
    Technical Centre for Soil, Agriculture and Rural Ecology and Environment, Ministry of Ecology and Environment, Beijing 100012, China)

  • Xiangqin Xu

    (State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China)

  • Mingdong Sun

    (State Key Laboratory of Environmental Criteria and Risk Assessment, Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, Beijing 100012, China)

Abstract

Heavy metal pollution has become a great concern due to its adverse effects on the ecological system and human health. The present study investigated the concentrations of six common heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb) in the Tianjin coastal area to understand their distribution, enrichment, sources, and potential ecological risk levels, focusing on the main contributors. The results showed that the concentration of Cu was high in the surface seawater (6.89 µg/L for the average), while Cd was the main contaminating metal in the sediments, with an average concentration of 0.77 mg/kg. The potential ecological risk index ( RI ) implied that the heavy metals in the sediments could cause considerable ecological risk, and Cd was the major contributor to ecological risk in this area. In particular, the field investigation showed that Cd contamination occurred as a result of anthropogenic activities, including port transportation, mariculture, and metal fabrication along the coastal area. Therefore, it is necessary to control Cd contamination in the future to improve the quality of the marine environment in Bohai Bay.

Suggested Citation

  • Xuemeng Han & Junqiang Wang & Wenqian Cai & Xiangqin Xu & Mingdong Sun, 2021. "The Pollution Status of Heavy Metals in the Surface Seawater and Sediments of the Tianjin Coastal Area, North China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(21), pages 1-15, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11243-:d:665123
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11243/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/21/11243/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:21:p:11243-:d:665123. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.