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Long-term variations of the riverine input of potentially toxic dissolved elements and the impacts on their distribution in Jiaozhou Bay, China

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Abstract

The concentrations of the potentially toxic dissolved elements (PTEs) As, Hg, Cr, Pb, Cd, and Cu in the main rivers into Jiaozhou Bay (JZB) during 1981–2006 were measured, and the impact of the fluvial PTE fluxes on their distributions in the bay was investigated. The overall average concentration in the rivers into JZB ranged from 8.8 to 39.6 μg L−1 for As, 10.1 to 632.6 ng L−1 for Hg, 4.1 to 3003.6 μg L−1 for Cr, 8.5 to 141.9 μg L−1 for Pb, 1.1 to 34.2 μg L−1 for Cd, and 13.2 to 1042.8 μg L−1 for Cu. The interannual average concentration variations of the PTEs in these rivers were enormous, with maximum differences of 41–21,680 times, while their relative seasonal changes were far smaller with maximum differences of 3–12 times. The total annual fluvial fluxes for As, Hg, and Cr into JZB exhibited the inverse “U” pattern, while those for Pb and Cd showed the “N” pattern. As a whole, the total annual Cu flux presented a growing tendency from 1998 to 2006. In general, the changing trends of the PTE concentrations in JZB were similar to those of their annual fluxes from the rivers, indicating a great impact of their fluvial fluxes on their distributions in JZB. The annual concentration of Cd in the bay almost remained constant and differed from the fluvial flux of Cd. The diversified pattern of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) represented China’s approach to industrialization as “improving while developing.”

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Funding

This study was supported by the Ocean Public Welfare Scientific Research Project of the State Oceanic Administration, PCR (Grant No. 201205018), the Natural Science Foundation of the Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions of China (Project No. 14KJB170016), the Natural Science Foundation of Jiangsu Province, China (Project No. BK20141478), and the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Marine Sciences, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Changyou Wang

  2. Jiangsu Research Center for Ocean Survey Technology, Nanjing University of Information Science and Technology, Nanjing, 210044, China

    Changyou Wang

  3. Key Laboratory of Marine Chemistry Theory and Technology, Ministry of Education, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Jinqiang Guo, Shengkang Liang, Yunfei Wang, Yanqun Yang & Xiulin Wang

  4. College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Ocean University of China, 238 Songling Road, Qingdao, 266100, China

    Jinqiang Guo, Shengkang Liang, Yunfei Wang, Yanqun Yang & Xiulin Wang

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  1. Changyou Wang
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  2. Jinqiang Guo
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  3. Shengkang Liang
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  4. Yunfei Wang
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  5. Yanqun Yang
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Correspondence to Shengkang Liang.

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Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues

Appendix

Appendix

Fig. 1
figure 9

Multi-year mean flux in different month for the Dagu, Moshui, Licun, Haibo, Loushan, and Banqiaofang rivers

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Fig. 2
figure 10

Changing trend of population in Qingdao City and Real GDP per capita since 1981–2006

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Fig. 3
figure 11

The annual precipitation and air temperature from 1981 to 2006 in the Qindao area (dash line: tendency in the annual precipitation; dot line: tendency in the air temperature)

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Fig. 4
figure 12

The annual sewage flux in Qingdao City since 1981–2006 (data from literatures (Qin 2009; Yu 2010a, b))

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Fig. 5
figure 13

The annual water flux in the Dagu river from 1981 to 2006 (dash line: uptrend line; dot line: 5-year moving average)

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Wang, C., Guo, J., Liang, S. et al. Long-term variations of the riverine input of potentially toxic dissolved elements and the impacts on their distribution in Jiaozhou Bay, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 25, 8800–8816 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-017-1118-4

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