Accumulation and risk assessment of heavy metals in water, sediments, and aquatic organisms in rural rivers in the Taihu Lake region, China

Abstract

Concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) were measured in water, sediments, Ceratophyllum (hornwort), and Bellamya sp. (edible snail) from residential, mixed (industrial and commercial), and agricultural areas with rural rivers in the Taihu Lake region, China. Zn concentrations were the highest, whereas Cd concentrations were the lowest among the six metals in water, sediments, and aquatic organisms. Cd was mainly present in the acid-soluble fraction, Cr in the residual fraction, and Pb in the reducible fraction of sediments. Heavy metal concentrations in water, sediments, and aquatic organisms in the three areas followed the order of the mixed area > residential area > agricultural area. Heavy metal concentrations in aquatic organisms were not only related to total metal concentrations in water and sediments but also to metal speciation concentrations in sediments. In addition, the bio-concentration factor (BCF) values of Cr, Cu, Pb, and Zn for Bellamya sp. were higher than those for Ceratophyllum, whereas the BCF values of Cd and Ni for Bellamya sp. were lower than those for Ceratophyllum. An ecological risk assessment of heavy metals in sediments showed that Cd posed the highest ecological risk to the environment. A health risk assessment showed that consuming Bellamya sp. from the mixed area could cause a potential health risk.

Trace metal speciation in sediments and bioaccumulation in Phragmites australis as tools in environmental pollution monitoring

“…Sediment samples were taken at the depth corresponding to the extent of plants roots (0-10 cm) as recommended by Baldantoni et al (2009) when studying geochemistry of P. australis. The same method is usually used for sampling sediments for risk assessment of metals (Bo et al 2015). Simultaneously, leaves from five randomly selected plants of common reed (Phragmites australis) were taken.…”

“…Trace metals are non-degradable; they accumulate in soil, sediment and living organisms posing serious threat to the environment and humans. Industry, agriculture and urban areas are the source of metals that reach the aquatic environments in which they accumulate in flora and fauna or are incorporated into sediments (Bo et al 2015;Kabata-Pendias and Pendias 2001;Li et al 2016). In particular, organisms that have direct contact with sediments, e.g., rooted macrophytes, are under greater influence from metals accumulated in sediments than those dissolved in water (Štrbac et al 2014).…”

The distribution of heavy metals content in the bottom deposits of the trans-border Uzh river system

“…Нині одна з основних екологічних проблемзабруднення поверхневих вод (Islam еt al., 2015;Mohiuddin, et al, 2016). Інтенсифікація антропогенного навантаження в сукупності з природно-кліматичними факторами викликає значні зміни у структурі гідроекосистем, які супроводжуються порушенням гідрологічного та гідрохімічного режимів, біотрансформацією екотоксикантів та їх акумуляцією в ланцюгах живлення, кінцева ланка якихлюдина та тварини (Bo et al, 2014;Götze et al, 2014;Brygadyrenko and Ivanyshyn, 2015;Kul'bachko et al, 2015;Tsvetkova et al, 2016). До одних із найнебезпечніших забруднювачів водних об'єктів належать важкі метали (Fujita et al, 2014;Shakeri et al, 2016).…”

Accumulation of Heavy Metals in Water and Some Fish Samples from Onuimo River, Imo State, Nigeria

“…Presence of massive economic and agricultural activities around the river is believed to be the major sources of pollution through river run offs. Hence presence of contaminants like heavy metals and its bioaccumulation in water, soil, sediments, and aquatic organisms especially fishes in river could cause adverse health risk to people who consume products from the river [36][37]. The main objective of this work was to investigate the bioaccumulation of four heavy metals in selected fish samples from Onuimo River namely; Moon fish (Citharinus citharus), Tilapia fish (Oreochronus niloticus), Mud fish (Clarias anguillaris), Cat fish (Clarias gariepinus) and Carp fish (Labeo coulbie) as well as to assess the levels of Cu, Cd, Cr and Zn in the water phase of the same river.…”