ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Toxicology, Pollution and the Environment
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2025.1646212
This article is part of the Research TopicPolluted Ecosystems: How Global Climate Change Drives Pollutant Dynamics in Aquatic and Terrestrial EcosystemsView all articles
Distribution characteristics, risks and sources of heavy metals in surface sediments from typical industrial and mining complex area in Southwest China
Provisionally accepted
- Chongqing Bureau of Geology and Minerals Exploration No.107 Geological Team, Chongqing, China
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With the rapid progress of industrialization and urbanization, large amounts of industrial wastewater and mining waste have been discharged into rivers. The problem is especially severe in areas with intensive mineral resource development and hardware manufacturing. Moreover, frequent heavy rainfall and flooding during the flood season significantly increase surface runoff and sediments resuspension, promoting the mobilization and redistribution of heavy metals (HMs) in river systems. Therefore, it is of great practical importance to systematically identify the distribution characteristics and ecological risks of HMs pollution in such regions under changing climatic conditions. Eighty-five surface sediment samples were collected in Southwest China, and the concentrations of As, Hg, Cd, and Pb were determined. The geo-accumulation index (Igeo) and the potential ecological risk index (RI) were used to assess contamination levels and ecological risks, and principal component analysis (PCA) and positive matrix factorization (PMF) were applied to trace pollution sources. The results show that Cd and Hg have similar spatial patterns, with high concentrations mainly downstream of mining areas and industrial parks. Igeo and RI assessments indicate that Hg pollution in sediments is severe in four major rivers of Dazu District, followed by Cd, while As and Pb show relatively low pollution levels. Source apportionment revealed that industrial and traffic-related activities contribute 55.05% of HMs inputs, mining activities account for 41.28%, and natural sources contribute 3.67%. Cd and Pb mainly originate from industrial emissions and traffic, Hg is primarily associated with mining, and As is derived from natural sources.
Keywords: heavy metals, Industrialization, sediments, Ecological risks, SOURCE APPORTIONMENT, Flood season
Received: 13 Jun 2025; Accepted: 30 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Shen, Huang, Huang, Liu, Yi, Tang, Yin and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Zongwang Yi, Chongqing Bureau of Geology and Minerals Exploration No.107 Geological Team, Chongqing, China
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