Assessment of heavy metal pollution and ecological risk in river water and sediments in a historically metal mined watershed, Northeast Japan

Abstract

the outlet of the tributary within each sub-watershed was also sampled to capture the diffusional pollution status. The distributions of Zn, Cu, Cd, Pb and As in river water and sediments, as well as their pollution characteristics and ecological risks, were analysed under different hydrological conditions. Our findings provide evidence of the ecological risk in surface water induced by Zn, Cu and Pb pollution in the Kosaka River system. In a high proportion of the sub-watershed, there was moderate to strong enrichment in Cd, Cu and Zn in the river sediments. The sub-watersheds with high pollution levels and ecological risk were highly consistent with the subwatersheds encompassing abandoned mine sites. Suspended particles carried large amounts of Pb and Cu, especially on rainy days. The heavy metal contents in river water were very sensitive to occasional rainfall events; rainy days posed the most risk to organisms in the Kosaka River, followed by the lowwater-level season and the high-water-level season.

Spatial Distribution of Al, Zn, Fe, As, Pb, Mn, Cr, and Cu in Surface Waters of the Urumqi River Basin, China, and Assessment of Risks to Ecosystems and Human Health

“…Practical experience shows that the Mahananda River is likely to be threatened by pollution, with seven sampling stations exceeding the hazard limit (HI ≤ 1) in the premonsoon season and two sampling stations exceeding the limit in the post-monsoon season. Ustao glu and coworkers investigated the status and contamination levels of 13 elements polluting seven rivers in the northeastern Giresun Basin in Turkey and showed that the levels of Al in the rivers exceeded the World Health Organization's acceptable limits and that the risk of cancer in both children and adults was lower in one river basin but higher in the remainder as a result of contamination with As, and other related studies have shown similar results [18,[26][27][28][29]. Numerous studies have shown that anthropogenic activities have led to elevated concentrations of the metal elements Cr and As in soils, waters, sediments, etc., with certain potential hazards to the ecological environment and human health.…”

Dynamics of land cover changes and condition of soil and surface water quality in a Mining–Altered landscape, Ghana

“…Soils of many mining communities have a lot of metal contaminants because of metal ores mining and milling [ 15 , 16 ]. Heavy metal (lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium, chromium, zinc and nickel) pollution exists in the soil surrounding mines, posing persistent risks to public health [ 15 , 17 ].…”

Knowledge Mapping Analysis of Water Ecological Risk Studies in Mining Areas Based on Web of Science

“…Research on water ecological risk at home and abroad has focused on three main areas: firstly, theoretical research, such as defining the concept of water ecological risk, exploring the development of water ecological risk, constructing evaluation index systems and designing water ecological risk evaluation models [7][8][9][10]. The second is empirical research, using the evaluation index system and evaluation model to evaluate and analyse the research object [11][12][13][14][15]. The third is object research, mainly focusing on watersheds [11][12], plateaus [13], cities [14], and mining areas [15][16].…”

“…The second is empirical research, using the evaluation index system and evaluation model to evaluate and analyse the research object [11][12][13][14][15]. The third is object research, mainly focusing on watersheds [11][12], plateaus [13], cities [14], and mining areas [15][16]. This paper takes mining areas as the primary research subject and combines them with watersheds and soils.…”