Heavy Metals in Agriculture Soils from High Andean Zones and Potential Ecological Risk Assessment in Peru's Central Andes

Abstract

Soil is exposed to heavy metals that are associated with the anthropogenic activities, and is currently an environmental and food safety problem. The concentration and source of heavy metals in soils, the level of contamination and the potential for ecological risk in high Andean ecosystems were evaluated. The soil samples were collected from the surface part in which Andean crops were sown and the concentration of As, Cd, Pb, Fe and Zn was quantified. The concentrations of heavy metals in soils did not exceed the threshold of the national and international standard, while As, Pb and Zn exceeded the values of the background. The contamination factor (CF) values showed a high level of contamination for As and moderate for Pb and Zn. The geoaccumulation index (Igeo) values showed that As had the highest load of accumulated pollutants in soils by anthropogenic contribution. A moderate degree of contamination (CD) was found in 61.5% of the sampling sites. The potential ecological risk index (RI) showed that the soils of the study area presented a moderate to low potential ecological risk, and As was the main pollutant in high Andean soils. As, Pb and Zn occurring in high Andean soils mainly originated from human activities such as agricultural practices, whereas Fe mainly originated from the parent material of the soil. The effects of the use of organic and inorganic fertilizers on the accumulation of heavy metals in and Andean agricultural products must be analyzed and verified to protect the health of the inhabitants and the environment.

Human risk associated with the ingestion of artichokes grown in soils irrigated with water contaminated by potentially toxic elements, Junin, Peru

“…The results obtained reveal that soils in sectors S3 and S4 recorded PTE concentrations that exceeded the maximum permitted limits of the national and international standard ( MINEN, 2017 , FAO/WHO, 2011a , CME, 2004 , EPMC, 2014 ), which means that the soils in these sectors are undergoing degradation processes. The mean concentrations of As, Pb and Zn in this study were higher than the concentrations reported by Orellana et al (2020) in high Andean areas with rainfed agriculture in the central region of Peru. The high concentration of Pb and As in sectors S3 and S4 reveal that the bioavailable concentration of heavy metals is higher in soils irrigated with contaminated water than in soils irrigated with rainwater.…”

Risk Assessment of Heavy Metal Distribution in Soil of a Typical Tourist Island in South China

“…Relatively high Zn and Pb contents lead to correspondingly higher geoaccumulation index values. The ecological risk index mainly considers the toxicity of the different heavy metals [9] . Additionally, the toxic response factors of Cd and Hg are much higher than those of other heavy metals, which leads to larger E i values for Cd and Hg.…”

“…There are many severe problems due to soil contamination in China, particularly related to heavy metals [8]. Because of the toxicity, bioaccumulation and persistence of heavy metals, they pose a significant threat to the natural environment [9] . Understanding the concentration and spatial distribution of soil heavy metals and assessing their ecological risks are critical for the accurate and effective implementation of risk management and control of soil heavy metal pollution [10] .…”

“…Understanding the concentration and spatial distribution of soil heavy metals and assessing their ecological risks are critical for the accurate and effective implementation of risk management and control of soil heavy metal pollution [10] . In terms of soil heavy metal distribution characteristics and ecological risk assessments, most current research has focused on mainland ecosystems, with little attention paid to islands [9,[11][12][13] . In this study, Sanjiaozhou Island, an important and typical tourist island in Daya Bay, southern China, was selected to investigate the heavy metal pollution in the surface soils and to identify the influence of human activities.…”

Discharge Patterns of Potentially Harmful Elements (PHEs) from Coking Plants and Its Relationship with Soil PHE Contents in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei Region, China

“…The potential ecological risk index method [ 27 , 45 ] was used to evaluate the potential ecological risks of soil PHEs obtained through sedimentation from coking waste gas in BTH (Equations (8) and (9)). where is the potential ecological risk index of a single PHE i ; is the toxicity coefficient of PHE i , and the coefficients of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn are 10, 30, 2, 5, 40, 5, 5, and 1, respectively [ 45 , 46 , 47 ]; is the concentration of a single PHE i , mg·kg −1 ; is a reference for a single PHE i , mg·kg −1 , which was the background value of PHEs in BTH; RI is the comprehensive potential ecological risk index of PHEs. Risk classification standards refer to published studies [ 45 , 48 ] ( Table S2, Supplementary File) .…”