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Uncertainties in Pollution and Risk Assessments of Heavy Metals in Lake Sediments Using Regional Background Soils in China

Background soils are frequently utilized as a surrogate to assess pollution levels and environmental risks of heavy metals in Chinese lakes. However, there remains a lack of understanding regarding the reliability and uncertainty of such assessments. Here, we determined heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr,...

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Autores principales: Wan, Dejun, Gao, Jiapeng, Song, Ruiting, Song, Lei, Ning, Dongliang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10383175/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37505578
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics11070613
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author Wan, Dejun
Gao, Jiapeng
Song, Ruiting
Song, Lei
Ning, Dongliang
author_facet Wan, Dejun
Gao, Jiapeng
Song, Ruiting
Song, Lei
Ning, Dongliang
author_sort Wan, Dejun
collection PubMed
description Background soils are frequently utilized as a surrogate to assess pollution levels and environmental risks of heavy metals in Chinese lakes. However, there remains a lack of understanding regarding the reliability and uncertainty of such assessments. Here, we determined heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in sediment cores from five rural lakes in North China to evaluate the reliability and uncertainty of the assessments using background soils by comparing them with assessments based on background sediments. Comparative studies reveal large uncertainties in the assessments using background soils. Among these metals, uncertainties for Hg and Cd are relatively large, whereas those for the other metals are minor. This discrepancy is due to the considerably higher natural variability of Hg and Cd in soils and sediments in comparison to the other metals. Generally, assessments utilizing background soils underestimate pollution levels and risks of Hg but overestimate those of Cd in these lakes. Despite limited human activities around the lakes, they still received a considerable influx of heavy metals via regional atmospheric transport. Assessments of the nine metals indicate moderate to considerable ecological risks in these lakes. The risks are contributed primarily (78–89%) by Hg and Cd. This study underscores the substantial uncertainties in assessing heavy metal pollution and risks using regional background soils and emphasizes the importance of controlling atmospheric emissions of Hg and Cd to mitigate pollution in rural and remote water bodies in China.
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spelling pubmed-103831752023-07-30 Uncertainties in Pollution and Risk Assessments of Heavy Metals in Lake Sediments Using Regional Background Soils in China Wan, Dejun Gao, Jiapeng Song, Ruiting Song, Lei Ning, Dongliang Toxics Article Background soils are frequently utilized as a surrogate to assess pollution levels and environmental risks of heavy metals in Chinese lakes. However, there remains a lack of understanding regarding the reliability and uncertainty of such assessments. Here, we determined heavy metals (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in sediment cores from five rural lakes in North China to evaluate the reliability and uncertainty of the assessments using background soils by comparing them with assessments based on background sediments. Comparative studies reveal large uncertainties in the assessments using background soils. Among these metals, uncertainties for Hg and Cd are relatively large, whereas those for the other metals are minor. This discrepancy is due to the considerably higher natural variability of Hg and Cd in soils and sediments in comparison to the other metals. Generally, assessments utilizing background soils underestimate pollution levels and risks of Hg but overestimate those of Cd in these lakes. Despite limited human activities around the lakes, they still received a considerable influx of heavy metals via regional atmospheric transport. Assessments of the nine metals indicate moderate to considerable ecological risks in these lakes. The risks are contributed primarily (78–89%) by Hg and Cd. This study underscores the substantial uncertainties in assessing heavy metal pollution and risks using regional background soils and emphasizes the importance of controlling atmospheric emissions of Hg and Cd to mitigate pollution in rural and remote water bodies in China. MDPI 2023-07-14 /pmc/articles/PMC10383175/ /pubmed/37505578 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics11070613 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Wan, Dejun
Gao, Jiapeng
Song, Ruiting
Song, Lei
Ning, Dongliang
Uncertainties in Pollution and Risk Assessments of Heavy Metals in Lake Sediments Using Regional Background Soils in China
title Uncertainties in Pollution and Risk Assessments of Heavy Metals in Lake Sediments Using Regional Background Soils in China
title_full Uncertainties in Pollution and Risk Assessments of Heavy Metals in Lake Sediments Using Regional Background Soils in China
title_fullStr Uncertainties in Pollution and Risk Assessments of Heavy Metals in Lake Sediments Using Regional Background Soils in China
title_full_unstemmed Uncertainties in Pollution and Risk Assessments of Heavy Metals in Lake Sediments Using Regional Background Soils in China
title_short Uncertainties in Pollution and Risk Assessments of Heavy Metals in Lake Sediments Using Regional Background Soils in China
title_sort uncertainties in pollution and risk assessments of heavy metals in lake sediments using regional background soils in china
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10383175/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37505578
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/toxics11070613
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