Acta Geographica Sinica ›› 2011, Vol. 66 ›› Issue (9): 1281-1288.doi: 10.11821/xb201109013

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The Spatial Distribution of Heavy Metals in the Urban Topsoil Collected from the Interior Area of the Second Ring Road, Xi'an

CHEN Xiuduan1,2, LU Xinwei1, ZHAO Caifeng1, LUO Dacheng1   

  1. 1. School of Tourism and Environment, Shaanxi Normal University, Xi'an 710062, China;
    2. Department of Environment and Resource Management, Shaanxi Institute of Education, Xi'an 710061, China
  • Received:2011-05-20 Revised:2011-06-20 Online:2011-09-20 Published:2011-09-20
  • Supported by:

    Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, No.2010ZYGX014; No. GK200901008; New Century Excellent Talents in University, No.NCET-05-0861

Abstract: The concentrations of Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn and V in 78 urban topsoil samples collected from inside the Second Ring Road in Xi'an were measured by X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy. The spatial variability of eight heavy metals was identified by geostatistical analysis with the aid of GIS tools. And correlation coefficient analysis, factor analysis and cluster analysis were used to analyze the data and to identify the possible sources of these heavy metals. The multivariate analytical results show that the spatial variability of Co, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn was obvious. The higher concentrations of five heavy metals were found in some high-value bands and high-value areas, while Mn, Ni and V were evenly distributed in space. The source analytical results show that the accumulations of Co, Cr, Cu, Pb and Zn were mainly related with transport activities, industrial activities and consumption residues, while Mn, Ni and V originated mainly from soil parent material.

Key words: topsoil, heavy metal, spatial distribution, source, Xi'an