Xingmei Liu

Human health risk assessment of heavy metals in soil-vegetable system: a multi-medium analysis.

Vegetable fields near villages in China are suffering increasing heavy metal damages from various pollution sources including agriculture, traffic, mining and Chinese typical local private family-sized industry. 268 vegetable samples which included rape, celery, cabbages, carrots, asparagus lettuces, cowpeas, tomatoes and cayenne pepper and their corresponding soils in three economically developed areas of Zhejiang Province, China were collected, and the concentrations of five heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Cr, Hg and As) in all the samples were determined. The health risk assessment methods developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) were employed to explore the potential health hazards of heavy metals in soils growing vegetables. Results showed that heavy metal contaminations in investigated vegetables and corresponding soils were significant. Pollution levels varied with metals and vegetable types. The highest mean soil concentrations of heavy metals were 70.36 mg kg(-1) Pb, 47.49 mg kg(-1) Cr, 13.51 mg kg(-1) As, 0.73 mg kg(-1) for Cd and 0.67 mg kg(-1) Hg, respectively, while the metal concentrations in vegetables and corresponding soils were poorly correlated. The health risk assessment results indicated that diet dominated the exposure pathways, so heavy metals in soil samples might cause potential harm through food-chain transfer. The total non-cancer and cancer risk results indicated that the investigated arable fields near industrial and waste mining sites were unsuitable for growing leaf and root vegetables in view of the risk of elevated intakes of heavy metals adversely affecting food safety for local residents. Chromium and Pb were the primary heavy metals posing non-cancer risks while Cd caused the greatest cancer risk. It was concluded that more effective controls should be focused on Cd and Cr to reduce pollution in this study area.

Heavy metal contaminations in a soil–rice system: Identification of spatial dependence in relation to soil properties of paddy fields

In order to identify spatial relationship of heavy metals in soil-rice system at a regional scale, 96 pairs of rice and soil samples were collected from Wenling in Zhejiang province, China, which is one of the well-known electronic and electric waste recycling centers. The results indicated some studied areas had potential contaminations by heavy metals, especially by Cd. The spatial distribution of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn illustrated that the highest concentrations were located in the northwest areas and the accumulation of these metals may be due to the industrialization, agricultural chemicals and other human activities. In contrast, the concentration of Ni decreased from east to west and the mean concentration was below the background value, indicating the distribution of Ni may be naturally controlled. Enrichment index (EI) was used to describe the availability of soil heavy metals to rice. The spatial distribution of EIs for Cd, Ni and Zn exhibited a west-east structure, which was similar with the spatial structures of pH, OM, sand and clay. Cross-correlograms further quantitatively illustrated the EIs were significantly correlated with most soil properties, among which; soil pH and OM had the strongest correlations with EIs. However, EI of Cu showed relative weak correlations with soil properties, especially soil pH and OM had no correlations with EI of Cu, indicating the availability of Cu may be influenced by other factors.

Major factors influencing the efficacy of vegetated buffers on sediment trapping: a review and analysis.

Sediment is a major agricultural pollutant threatening water quality. Vegetated buffers, including vegetative filter strips, riparian buffers, and grassed waterways, are best management practices (BMPs) installed in many areas to filter sediments from tailwaters, and deter sediment transport to water bodies. Along with reducing sediment transport, the filters also help trap sediment bound nutrients and pesticides. The objectives of this study were: (i) to review vegetated buffer efficacy on sediment trapping, and (ii) to develop statistical models to investigate the major factors influencing sediment trapping. A range of sediment trapping efficacies was found in a review of over 80 representative BMP experiments. A synthesis of the literature regarding the effects of vegetated buffers on sediment trapping is needed. The meta-analysis results based on the limited data showed that buffer width and slope are two major factors influencing BMPs efficacy of vegetated buffers on sediment trapping. Regardless of the area ratio of buffer to agricultural field, a 10 m buffer and a 9% slope optimized the sediment trapping capability of vegetated buffers.

A review of vegetated buffers and a meta-analysis of their mitigation efficacy in reducing nonpoint source pollution.

Vegetated buffers are a well-studied and widely used agricultural management practice for reducing nonpoint-source pollution. A wealth of literature provides experimental data on their mitigation efficacy. This paper aggregated many of these results and performed a meta-analysis to quantify the relationships between pollutant removal efficacy and buffer width, buffer slope, soil type, and vegetation type. Theoretical models for removal efficacy (Y) vs. buffer width (w) were derived and tested against data from the surveyed literature using statistical analyses. A model of the form Y = K x (1-e(-bxw)), (0 < K < or = 100) successfully captured the relationship between buffer width and pollutant removal, where K reflects the maximum removal efficacy of the buffer and b reflects its probability to remove any single particle of pollutant in a unit distance. Buffer width alone explains 37, 60, 44, and 35% of the total variance in removal efficacy for sediment, pesticides, N, and P, respectively. Buffer slope was linearly associated with sediment removal efficacy either positively (when slope < or = 10%) or negatively (when slope > 10%). Buffers composed of trees have higher N and P removal efficacy than buffers composed of grasses or mixtures of grasses and trees. Soil drainage type did not show a significant effect on pollutant removal efficacy. Based on our analysis, a 30-m buffer under favorable slope conditions (approximately 10%) removes more than 85% of all the studied pollutants. These models predicting optimal buffer width/slope can be instrumental in the design, implementation, and modeling of vegetated buffers for treating agricultural runoff.

Heavy metal sources identification and sampling uncertainty analysis in a field-scale vegetable soil of Hangzhou, China

At a field-scale (6.7ha), 100 surface soil samples were collected from a vegetable field to determine total concentrations of Cd, Co, Cu, Hg, Mn, Ni and Zn. To identify possible sources of these metals and characterize their spatial variation, classic statistic and geostatistic techniques were applied. Through correlation and geostatistical analysis, it was found that the primary inputs of Co, Mn and Ni were due to pedogenic sources, whereas the sources of Hg and Cd were mainly due to human activities. Because of their different sources, their variations followed: Hg>Cd approximately Cu>Zn approximately Co approximately Mn approximately Ni. Based on their relationships with other soil properties, co-kriging was used to minimize sampling density. Sampling numbers for Cd, Cu, Zn, Mn, Co and Ni can be reduced from 100 to 90, 80, 70, 60, 60 and 60, respectively, without losing accuracy relative to ordinary kriging.

Physicochemical properties of biochar produced from aerobically composted swine manure and its potential use as an environmental amendment

Biochars derived from the pyrolysis, at 400 and 700°C, respectively, of fresh (T0), 21d (T1) and 84d (T2) aerobically composted swine manure, were characterized and investigated for their potential use as environmental amendments. The biochar yield significantly increased following composting, but decreased with increased temperature. The ash content, surface area (SA), pH, electrical conductivity (EC), mineral nutrients, total heavy metals (except Cd) and available As, Cu, Mn and Zn concentrations of biochar produced at 700°C were higher than in biochar produced at 400°C, whereas the volatile matter, higher heating value (HHV) and elemental composition were decreased. The maximum Cu(II) adsorption capacity was 20.11 mg g(-1) by biochar produced from T2 at 400°C. The pyrolysis of 84d aerobically composted swine manure to produce biochar at 400°C could be used as a soil amendment, or as an adsorbent for the removal heavy metal ions from wastewater.

The identification of 'hotspots' of heavy metal pollution in soil-rice systems at a regional scale in eastern China.

Chinese agricultural soils and crops are suffering from increasing damage from heavy metals, which are introduced from various pollution sources including agriculture, traffic, mining and especially the flourishing private metal recycling industry. In this study, 219 pairs of rice grain and corresponding soil samples were collected from Wenling in Zhejiang Province to identify the spatial relationship and pollution hotspots of Cd, Cu, Ni and Zn in the soil-rice system. The mean soil concentrations of heavy metals were 0.316 mg kg(-1) for Cd, 47.3 mg kg(-1) for Cu, 31.7 mg kg(-1) for Ni and 131 mg kg(-1) for Zn, and the metal concentrations in rice grain were 0.132 mg kg(-1) for Cd, 2.46 mg kg(-1) for Cu, 0.223 mg kg(-1) for Ni and 17.4 mg kg(-1) for Zn. The coefficient of variability (CV) of soil Cd, Cu and rice Cd were 147%, 146% and 180%, respectively, indicating an extensive variability. While the CVs of other metals ranged from 23.4% to 84.3% with a moderate variability. Kriging interpolation procedure and the Local Morans I index detected the locations of pollution hotspots of these four metals. Cd and Cu had a very similar spatial pattern, with contamination hotspots located simultaneously in the northwestern part of the study area, and there were obvious hotspots for soil Zn in the north area, while in the northeast for soil Ni. The existence of hotspots may be due to industrialization and other anthropogenic activities. An Enrichment Index (EI) was employed to measure the uptake of heavy metals by rice. The results indicated that the accumulation and availability of heavy metals in the soil-rice system may be influenced by both soil heavy metal concentrations and soil physico-chemical properties. Cross-correlograms quantitatively illustrated that EIs were significantly correlated with soil properties. Soil pH and organic matter were the most important factors controlling the uptake of heavy metals by rice. As results, positive measures should be taken into account to control soil pollution and to curtail metal contamination to the food chain in the areas of Wenling, which were the most polluted by toxic metals.

Dynamic modeling of organophosphate pesticide load in surface water in the northern San Joaquin Valley watershed of California

The hydrology, sediment, and pesticide transport components of the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) were evaluated on the northern San Joaquin Valley watershed of California. The Nash-Sutcliffe coefficients for monthly stream flow and sediment load ranged from 0.49 to 0.99 over the watershed during the study period of 1992-2005. The calibrated SWAT model was applied to simulate fate and transport processes of two organophosphate pesticides of diazinon and chlorpyrifos at watershed scale. The model generated satisfactory predictions of dissolved pesticide loads relative to the monitoring data. The model also showed great success in capturing spatial patterns of dissolved diazinon and chlorpyrifos loads according to the soil properties and landscape morphology over the large agricultural watershed. This study indicated that curve number was the major factor influencing the hydrology while pesticide fate and transport were mainly affected by surface runoff and pesticide application and in the study area.

Spectral discrimination of Phytophthora infestans infection on tomatoes based on principal component and cluster analyses

Abstract Statistical methods like principal component analysis and cluster analysis are not new in identification and classification for biological features. However, the success of utilizing these two methods in discriminating late blight infected tomatoes (caused by Phytophthora infestans ) from healthy ones has not yet been reported. This paper demonstrates the capability of using principal component analysis and cluster analysis for identification and discrimination of spectral characteristics of late blight infections on tomatoes. Our results show that the first principal component is related to the spectral properties of healthy tomatoes, and the second principal component is related to the spectral properties of infected tomatoes. Cluster analysis shows that a reasonable discrimination is obtained when the centroid distance of clusters is above 0.5. The consistent results from both principal components analysis and cluster analysis indicate that late blight infection on tomatoes can be successfully detected with remote sensing when the infection severity reaches middle to late stages. Moreover, spectral ratio analysis provides us with the way to identify the sensitive spectral wavelengths where distinguishable reflectance values can be observed for unique biological features. Understanding the light responses to unique biological features may increase discrimination accuracy by reducing the impact of soil background on spectral measurements, and utilizing the most sensitive wavelengths for discriminating between healthy and diseased tomatoes.

Effects of inorganic and organic amendments on the uptake of lead and trace elements by Brassica chinensis grown in an acidic red soil.

A greenhouse study was conducted to investigate the effects of inorganic (phosphate rock, single superphosphate and calcium magnesium phosphate) and organic amendments (peat, straw manure and pig manure) on the uptake of lead (Pb) and trace elements by Chinese Cabbage (Brassica chinensis) grown in an acidic red soil. The application of all organic amendments increased the soil pH while inorganic amendments such as single superphosphate did not. Both inorganic and organic amendments decreased the availability and uptake of Pb while the organic amendments were superior to the inorganic (phosphate) amendments in reducing the availability of the more labile (soluble and exchangeable Pb) forms of soil Pb. More Pb was taken up by roots than shoots with all soil amendments. Among the organic amendments, straw manure and pig manure caused the largest decrease in Pb availability at 456.5 and 457.3 mg kg(-1), respectively, when a high level of 30 g organic amendments kg(-1) was applied. The organic amendments greatly increased the fraction D targeted to Fe-Mn oxides bound Pb, and decreased the fraction A (water-soluble), B (exchangeable), and C (carbonate-bound), thereby decreasing the solubility and mobility of Pb in soil. The organic amendments also significantly improved the concentrations of Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn in the soil and shoots (except Fe in shoots and/or roots), which are essential for plant nutrition. The organic amendments of straw and pig manure lowered the availability and uptake of Pb but not that of other trace metals. Thus, these amendments have the potential to remediate Pb-contaminated soils in situ.