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Assessment of heavy metals contamination and water quality characterization in the Nanming River, Guizhou Province

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Abstract

The analysis to assess the water quality and potential ecological risks in sediments was carried out by means of the distribution characteristics of nutrient properties and heavy metals in water, and heavy metals in sediments from the Nanming River. The results from nutrient properties demonstrated that the majority of TN and TP exceeded the permissible limit and concentrated within the study area. The concentrations of heavy metal in water were lower than the permissible limits but may pose potential threat to aquatic ecosystems. Based on the potential ecological risk results of heavy metals in sediments, Cd posed risk to ecological environment, and the serious contaminations mainly existed in the center of Guiyang City. The multivariate statistical analyses were used to support the idea that the Upstream Area and Midstream Area were significantly dominated by NH4+, TP, TN and CODMn in water. Furthermore, landscape characteristics and hydrology condition better explained the certain trend of water quality. Finally, identifying relationship between nutrient properties and heavy metals that are key ecological components of ecosystem can potentially aid the advances for restoration of geochemical transformations and give rise to river restoration efforts.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financed by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1612442), Science and Technology Foundation of Guizhou Province ([2018]5805, [2020]4Y009, [2020]6009). We also appreciate our colleagues for assisting with fieldwork and laboratory experiments. The data for this paper are available by contacting the corresponding author.

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  1. Key Laboratory for Information System of Mountainous Area and Protection of Ecological Environment of Guizhou Province, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, People’s Republic of China

    Zhenhui Yuan, Qiuhua Li & Xinyang Ma

  2. Guizhou International Science and Technology Cooperation Base-International Joint Research Centre for Aquatic Ecology, Guiyang, 550001, People’s Republic of China

    Zhenhui Yuan, Qiuhua Li & Xinyang Ma

  3. Key Laboratory for Information and Computing Science of Guizhou Province, Guizhou Normal University, Guiyang, 550001, People’s Republic of China

    Mengshu Han

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  1. Zhenhui Yuan
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Correspondence to Qiuhua Li.

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Yuan, Z., Li, Q., Ma, X. et al. Assessment of heavy metals contamination and water quality characterization in the Nanming River, Guizhou Province. Environ Geochem Health 43, 1273–1286 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-020-00710-3

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