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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Environ. Sci.
Sec. Toxicology, Pollution and the Environment
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fenvs.2024.1471160
This article is part of the Research Topic Recent Advances in Volatile Organic Compounds, Heavy Metals, Microplastics, and Solid Wastes in Ecosystems View all articles

Heavy Metal Change Related to Land Use Change in a Karst Area: A Case Study in Changshun, Guizhou Province, China

Provisionally accepted
Xingfu Wang Xingfu Wang 1*Jiang Xin Jiang Xin 2Yi Liu Yi Liu 1Yu Huang Yu Huang 1Xianfei Huang Xianfei Huang 2
  • 1 Guiyang Healthcare Vocational University, Guiyang, China
  • 2 Guizhou Provincial Key Laboratory of Fermentation Engineering and Biopharmaceutics, Guizhou University, Guiyang, Guizhou Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Karst environments are characterized by fragile ecological systems, and environmental pollution has increased the living pressure of people in these regions. This research aimed to study the pollution status of heavy metals (Pb, Cd, Hg, As and Cu) in soils from different land uses in Changshun County, a karst area in southwestern China. Soil samples were collected from natural forest lands (NFL), natural brush lands (NBL), natural pasture lands (NPL), artificial forestlands (AFL), artificial brush lands (ABL) and artificial pasture lands (APL). The results suggested that the soil profile characteristics of studied heavy metals varied significantly among different land uses.Concentrations of the studied heavy metals in all soil samples collected from the NFL were lower than those in samples from the other land uses. Forest trees can protect soils from heavy metal pollution caused by atmospheric deposition; this is especially true for Hg. In cultivated forestlands and brush lands, special attention should be paid on soil Cd pollution which may be caused by utilization of fertilizer. Changing both the natural and artificial pasture lands to forestlands may benefit the local ecosystem since Hg contamination.

    Keywords: land use, heavy metals, pollution, Profile characteristics, Karst area, Southwestern China

    Received: 26 Jul 2024; Accepted: 28 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Wang, Xin, Liu, Huang and Huang. 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: Xingfu Wang, Guiyang Healthcare Vocational University, Guiyang, China

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