Determination and ecological risk assessment of arsenic and mercury in sediments from the Changjiang River Estuary and adjacent East China Sea

Yu’na Zhang; Qianwen Wang

doi:10.1007/s13131-021-1772-8

Volume 40 Issue 4

Jun. 2021

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Yu’na Zhang, Qianwen Wang. Determination and ecological risk assessment of arsenic and mercury in sediments from the Changjiang River Estuary and adjacent East China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2021, 40(4): 32-38. doi: 10.1007/s13131-021-1772-8

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Yu’na Zhang, Qianwen Wang. Determination and ecological risk assessment of arsenic and mercury in sediments from the Changjiang River Estuary and adjacent East China Sea[J]. Acta Oceanologica Sinica, 2021, 40(4): 32-38. doi: 10.1007/s13131-021-1772-8

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Determination and ecological risk assessment of arsenic and mercury in sediments from the Changjiang River Estuary and adjacent East China Sea

doi: 10.1007/s13131-021-1772-8

Yu’na Zhang¹,
Qianwen Wang^{1
,
,}

Central Laboratory, Qingdao Agricultural University, Qingdao 266109, China

Funds: The High-level Talents Scientific Foundation of Qingdao Agricultural University under contract No. 663/1119027.

More Information

Corresponding author: E-mail: qwwang@qau.edu.cn
Received Date: 2020-05-15
Accepted Date: 2020-08-04

Available Online: 2021-06-03

Publish Date: 2021-06-03

Abstract

Abstract

Arsenic (As) and mercury (Hg) are pollutants presented in marine environment. A process of atomic fluorescence spectrometry was proposed for the simultaneous determination of As and Hg in marine sediment samples (n = 38) collected from the Changjiang River Estuary and adjacent East China Sea. The proposed method used an optimized pretreatment procedure in an aqua regia–H₂O digestion system. Recoveries of As and Hg increased to 97% and 98%, respectively, with suitable precisions (2.7%–4.1%) under optimized process conditions. As and Hg were widely presented in these samples, with the ranges of content values were 2.39–8.77 μg/g for As and 48.03–410.8 ng/g for Hg. Results indicate that anthropogenic factors strongly influence the abundances of As and Hg in investigated samples. The preliminary environmental risk assessment was investigated using the geoaccumulation index (I_geo) and anthropogenic contribution rate (M). Findings reveal that Hg demonstrates a strong ecological risk (with average values of 1.3 and 72% for I_geo and M, respectively) in the sediments from the Changjiang River Estuary and adjacent East China Sea. Therefore, Hg should be considered in future investigations.
- arsenic,
- mercury,
- marine sediment,
- spatial distributions,
- ecological risk

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References(50)

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