Source-sink relationships of anthropogenic metal(loid)s from urban catchment to waterway in relation to spatial pattern of urban green infrastructures

Juan Li; Linlin Zhang; Shen Yu; Bing Hong; Ruihan Lin; Qi Li; Haifeng Jia; Dawen Yang; Chengwei Gu; Qimeng Jia

doi:10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.134381

Source-sink relationships of anthropogenic metal(loid)s from urban catchment to waterway in relation to spatial pattern of urban green infrastructures

J Hazard Mater. 2024 Apr 23:471:134381. doi: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.134381. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Juan Li¹, Linlin Zhang², Shen Yu³, Bing Hong⁴, Ruihan Lin², Qi Li¹, Haifeng Jia⁵, Dawen Yang⁵, Chengwei Gu⁵, Qimeng Jia⁵

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100049, China.
² Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China.
³ Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Xiamen Key Laboratory of Smart Management on the Urban Environment, Xiamen 361021, China. Electronic address: syu@iue.ac.cn.
⁴ Institute of Urban Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xiamen 361021, China; Xiamen Key Laboratory of Smart Management on the Urban Environment, Xiamen 361021, China.
⁵ Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.

PMID: 38663296
DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.134381

Abstract

Surface sediment in urban waterways originates from fine topsoil particles within catchments via surface erosion, often bonded with non-degradable metal(loid)s. This study posited that urban green infrastructures (UGIs) can influence anthropogenic metal(loid) transport from catchment topsoil to waterway sediment by retaining moveable particles. In multiply channeled downtown Suzhou, China, UGIs' spatial patterns were examined in relations to metal(loid)s source (catchment topsoil) - sink (waterway surface sediment) dynamics. Anthropogenic metal(loid)s - As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn - were spatially quantified in sediment at 144 waterway points and in topsoil at 154 UGIs' points across 7 subwatersheds. Integrated metal(loid) loads revealed significantly higher sediment loads (except for As) than topsoil, varying with element specificity and spatial unmatching across the subwatersheds. Loads of metal(loid)s in topsoil showed no significant differences among UGI types, but sediment loads of As, Cr, and Ni correlated positively with topsoil loads in roadside and public facility UGIs within 100 m- and 200 m-wide riparian buffer zones. However, waterfront UGIs negatively impacted on these correlations for Cr, Hg, and Ni loads within the riparian buffer zones. These findings highlight metal(loid) specificity and UGIs' spatial pattern effects on anthropogenic metal(loid) loads between catchment topsoil (source) and waterway surface sediment (sink), offering valuable guidelines for UGIs' design and implementation.

Keywords: Metal specificity; Riparian buffer zone; Roadside UGIs; UGIs spatial pattern effect; Waterfront UGIs.