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Geochemistry of dissolved trace elements and heavy metals in the Dan River Drainage (China): distribution, sources, and water quality assessment

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Abstract

Dissolved trace elements and heavy metals in the Dan River drainage basin, which is the drinking water source area of South-to-North Water Transfer Project (China), affect large numbers of people and should therefore be carefully monitored. To investigate the distribution, sources, and quality of river water, this study integrating catchment geology and multivariate statistical techniques was carried out in the Dan River drainage from 99 river water samples collected in 2013. The distribution of trace metal concentrations in the Dan River drainage was similar to that in the Danjiangkou Reservoir, indicating that the reservoir was significantly affected by the Dan River drainage. Moreover, our results suggested that As, Sb, Cd, Mn, and Ni were the major pollutants. We revealed extremely high concentrations of As and Sb in the Laoguan River, Cd in the Qingyou River, Mn, Ni, and Cd in the Yinhua River, As and Sb in the Laojun River, and Sb in the Dan River. According to the water quality index, water in the Dan River drainage was suitable for drinking; however, an exposure risk assessment model suggests that As and Sb in the Laojun and Laoguan rivers could pose a high risk to humans in terms of adverse health and potential non-carcinogenic effects.

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Acknowledgments

This work gratefully acknowledges financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant no. 41372225) and China Scholarship Council (grant to Qingpeng Meng, file no. 201406010057). Thanks to Tianming Xia, Yingqun Ma, and Zhichao Liu (Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences) for the laboratory work, to Junliang Sun and Shengdong Cheng (Peking University, China) for kind discussions, and to Hildred Crill (Stockholm University, Sweden) for improving the English.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Orogenic Belts and Crustal Evolution, Ministry of Education, School of Earth and Space Sciences, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China

    Qingpeng Meng, Zhaoyu Zhang & Tairan Wu

  2. Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry, Stockholm University, Stockholm, 106 91, Sweden

    Qingpeng Meng

  3. State Environmental Protection Key Laboratory of Environmental Planning and Policy Simulation, Chinese Academy of Environmental Planning, Beijing, 100012, China

    Jing Zhang

  4. School of Environmental, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Jing Zhang

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  1. Qingpeng Meng
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Correspondence to Tairan Wu.

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We have no potential conflicts of interest. No human participants and/or animals are involved in this work. This manuscript has not been submitted to any other journal in any language and published previously, regardless of part and full. This integrated study was not split up into several parts. No data have been fabricated or manipulated (including images) to support the conclusions. No data, text, or theories by others are presented. Consent to submit has been received explicitly from all co-authors before submitting. Authors whose names appear on the submission have contributed sufficiently to the scientific work and therefore share collective responsibility and accountability for the results.

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Meng, Q., Zhang, J., Zhang, Z. et al. Geochemistry of dissolved trace elements and heavy metals in the Dan River Drainage (China): distribution, sources, and water quality assessment. Environ Sci Pollut Res 23, 8091–8103 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-016-6074-x

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