ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Pollution
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1583535
This article is part of the Research TopicWater Resources Management and Pollution Control in Islands and Coastal AreasView all 9 articles
Distribution and pollution assessment of heavy metal(loid)s in seawater and organisms in Rongcheng coastal area, China
Provisionally accepted
- 1First Institute of Oceanography, Ministry of Natural Resources, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
- 2Zhejiang Institute of Hydrogeology and Engineering Geology, Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, China
- 3Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology (QIMG), Qingdao, China
- 4Qingdao Geotechnical Investigation and Surveying Research Institute, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
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The heavy metal(loid) pollution due to human activities has attracted considerable attention and may lead to serious environmental problems. Based on the surface seawater and marine organisms collected in Rongcheng coastal area in July, 2017, multiple indices were used to analyze the spatial distribution and pollution status of heavy metal(loid)s. The results showed that, except for Pb, the quality of all other heavy metal(loid)s in seawater is comparable with the first-class water quality standard (GB 3097-1997). Lead exhibited medium to high levels of pollution in certain stations. Conversely, the water quality and comprehensive potential ecological risk indices indicated that heavy metal(loid)s in seawater were in a clean state and low potential ecological risk. The predominant sources of copper (Cu), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn), chromium (Cr), and arsenic (As) were identified as anthropogenic, while mercury (Hg) and cadmium (Cd) were primarily attributed to natural sources. Although the concentration of heavy metal(loid)s in seawater is often very low, but the pollutants in the seawater can be concentrated step by step in the higher level of organisms through the food chain. With the exception of Cu and As, which exceeded the standard value in some marine organisms, the concentrations of the remaining heavy metal(loid)s were low, indicating that they met the relevant biological quality standards. The majority of heavy metal(loid)s exhibited a bio-accumulation factor value exceeding 1, indicating that the organisms possess a notable capacity for enrichment from seawater. Therefore, it's necessary to safeguard the quality of seawater, particularly in light of its potential impact on seafood consumption.
Keywords: Shandong peninsula, Heavy metal(loid)s, Pollution status, sources, ecological risk Cu, Pb, Zn, Cr, and As
Received: 26 Feb 2025; Accepted: 27 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yue, Dong, Yang, Wang, Feng and Sun. 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:
Jing Feng, Qingdao Institute of Marine Geology (QIMG), Qingdao, China
Jing Sun, Qingdao Geotechnical Investigation and Surveying Research Institute, Qingdao, Shandong Province, China
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