Spatial Distribution and Health Risk Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Surface Soils of Bosten Lake Basin, Central Asia

A geographically weighted regression and classical linear model were applied to quantitatively reveal the factors influencing the spatial distribution of potentially toxic elements of forty-eight surface soils from Bosten Lake basin in Central Asia. At the basin scale, the spatial distribution of the majority of potentially toxic elements, including: cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), thallium (Tl), vanadium (V), and zinc (Zn), had been significantly influenced by the geochemical characteristics of the soil parent material. However, the arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), antimony (Sb), and mercury (Hg) have been influenced by the total organic matter in soils. Compared with the results of the classical linear model, the geographically weighted regression can significantly increase the level of simulation at the basin spatial scale. The fitting coefficients of the predicted values and the actual measured values significantly increased from the classical linear model (Hg: r(2) = 0.31; Sb: r(2) = 0.64; Cd: r(2) = 0.81; and As: r(2) = 0.68) to the geographically weighted regression (Hg: r(2) = 0.56; Sb: r(2) = 0.74; Cd: r(2) = 0.89; and As: r(2) = 0.85). Based on the results of the geographically weighted regression, the average values of the total organic matter for As (28.7%), Cd (39.2%), Hg (46.5%), and Sb (26.6%) were higher than those for the other potentially toxic elements: Cr (0.1%), Co (4.0%), Ni (5.3%), V (0.7%), Cu (18.0%), Pb (7.8%), Tl (14.4%), and Zn (21.4%). There were no significant non-carcinogenic risks to human health, however, the results suggested that the spatial distribution of potentially toxic elements had significant differences.