Abstract
The restoration of mangrove in coastal wetlands of China has been started since the 1990s. However, various pollutants, especially for heavy metals (HMs), contained in wastewater might present a significant risk to mangrove forests during the restoration. In this study, sediments of five typical mangrove wetlands with varying restoration years and management measures in the Greater Bay Area were collected to evaluate the distribution fractions and potential ecological risk of HMs. Cd (0.2–1.6 mg/kg) was found in high concentrations in the exchangeable fraction (37.8–71.5%), whereas Cu (54.2–94.8 mg/kg), Zn (157.6–332.6 mg/kg), Cr (57.7–113.6 mg/kg), Pb (36.5–89.9 mg/kg), and Ni (29.7–69.5 mg/kg) primarily presented in residual fraction (30.8–91.9%). According to the geo-accumulation index (Igeo) analysis, sediment Cd presented a high level of pollution (3 ≤ Igeo ≤ 4), while Zn and Cu were associated with moderately pollution (1 ≤ Igeo ≤ 2). Besides, high ecological risk of Cd was found in sediments of five mangroves, with risk assessment code (RAC) ranging from 45.9 to 84.2. Redundancy analysis revealed that the content of NO3−-N was closely related to that of HMs in sediments and, pH value and NO3−-N concentration affected the distribution of HMs geochemical fractions. High concentration of HMs in QA and NS sampling sites was caused by the formerly pollutants discharge, resulting in these sediments still with a higher HM pollution level after the plant of mangrove for a long period. Fortunately, strict drainage standards for industrial activities in Shenzhen significantly availed for decreasing HMs contents in mangrove sediments. Therefore, future works on mangrove conversion and restoration should be linked to the water purification in the GBA.
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The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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Funding
This work was supported by the Key Project of National Natural Science Foundation of China (U1901212), the Science and Technology Planning Project of Guangdong Province (2020B1212060048), the Key Laboratory of Pollution Processes and Environmental Criteria (Nankai University), Ministry of Education (2021b06), and the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program for College Students of Zhongkai University of Agriculture and Engineering (S202211347104 and × 202211347386).
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Huan-Zhan Zhou, Hui-Min Jiang, and Ze-Xiang Cai: methodology, investigation. Jun-Feng Wang: writing—review and editing, funding acquisition. Zhi-Min Xu: review and editing, project administration, supervision, funding acquisition. Guan-Hui Tang, Song Ding, Sheng-Teng Liu: review and editing.
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Zhou, HZ., Wang, JF., Jiang, HM. et al. Distribution fractions and potential ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in mangrove sediments of the Greater Bay Area. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 45859–45871 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-25551-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-023-25551-2