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The human impacts level and migration of heavy metals in original inshore sediments of Dongying, China

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Abstract

Largely uncontrolled exogenous heavy metals (HMs) are released into the sea which eventually deposit in the original inshore sediments. However, the migration of these HMs was commonly overlooked in previous studies, which makes it hard to determine the fate of these HMs and locate the high-risk HMs pollution areas. Therefore, the original inshore areas in Dongying, China were taken as an example, and eight HMs (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb and Zn) in sediments and multiple geochemical indexes relevant to the properties of sediments were determined to clarify the level of human impacts on the aggregation of HMs and uncover the migration of HMs from nearshore to offshore. The obtained results suggested relatively low pollution of HMs based on the values of EF and Eri. Due to the intense marine erosion, HMs in the sediments mainly stem from the natural deposition, but are less affected by human activities. Mariculture is widespread but fails to exert its impact on the accumulation of HMs in sediments, mainly due to just the phosphorus, instead of the organic matters, which aggregate effectively. More exogenous HMs are moved from nearshore to offshore so that the offshore rather than nearshore is more susceptible to human activities, confirmed by the higher concentration and EF of HMs in the offshore areas. The migration of HMs may be more related to the altered minerals than the composition of grain size in sediments. The conversion of hydrodynamic conditions induced by runoff reduction may transport more altered minerals along with HMs to a farther area of sea and threaten the broader area of sea.

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Acknowledgments

The present study was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Guangxi Province, China (No. 2018GXNSFBA138051), CGS Research Fund JYYWF20182001, Key Research and Development Program of Guangxi, China (No. GuikeAB18050026), and China Geological Survey Project (No. DD20190825, No. DD20190343, No. DD20190022 and No. DD20190452). The comments that given by Prof Lianwen Liu (Nanjing University) were really helpful for this manuscript revision. Special thanks go to my beloved parents Guoping Liu and Yingzhong Miao and my lovely daughter Jiayang Miao. The former email of Xiongyi Miao, the address of which is miaoxy@karst.ac.cn, were shut down and changed to miaoxy88@126.com.  Similarly, the former email of Yupei Hao, the address of which is haoyupei@karst.ac.cn, were shut down too and changed to yphao66@126.com.

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  1. Key Laboratory of Karst Dynamics, MNR&GZAR, Institute of Krast Geology, CAGS, Guilin, 541004, China

    Xiongyi Miao, Yupei Hao & Shuwen Luo

  2. Institute of Polar Environment, School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Xiongyi Miao

  3. The Second Engineering Investigation Institute of Guizhou Bureau of Geology and Mineral Exploration and Development, Zunyi, 563000, China

    Xudong He

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Miao, X., Hao, Y., He, X. et al. The human impacts level and migration of heavy metals in original inshore sediments of Dongying, China. J Coast Conserv 24, 68 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11852-020-00786-0

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