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Continental-scale spatial distribution, sources, and health risks of heavy metals in seafood: challenge for the water-food-energy nexus sustainability in coastal regions?

  • Research in Environmental Planning and Management
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Abstract

Rare information on the seafood safety and the coastal water-food-energy nexus sustainability in terms of seafood safety is available. This study investigated the distribution of heavy metals in 3 kinds of seafood (bivalve molluscs, fish, and crustaceans) collected from coastal areas along the 18,000 km coastline of China. Risk assessment and source apportionment of heavy metals, and the coastal water-food-energy nexus sustainability in terms of heavy metal pollution were also performed. The results showed that total concentrations of 8 heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cr, Hg, As, and Ni) in seafood varied with sampling sites and species by following the order of bivalve molluscs > crustaceans > fish. Estimated daily intake (EDI) analysis indicated that it was safe for humans to consume seafood in all sampling sites. Non-cancer risks posed by heavy metals were acceptable for 99.1% of adult and 97.7% of children. However, Cr and As in 72% of fish samples caused high cancer risks for children. The farmed fish posed relatively low risk in comparison with the wild fish suggested that it might be safer to consume farmed fish than wild fish. Source apportionment demonstrated that the fossil energy consumption (coal combustion and vehicle exhaust), seawater, and metallurgic dust might serve as the possible main sources of heavy metals in seafood. Based on the policy scenario analysis, the fossil-energy-controlling policy and clean coastal water action were beneficial to the seafood safety by reducing target heavy metals in seafood. These findings provided comprehensive information on seafood safety and the water-food-energy nexus sustainability in coastal regions at continental-scale in terms of heavy metal pollution.

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Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Funding

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41671319), Taishan Scholars Program of Shandong Province (No. tsqn201812116), Science and Technology Service Network Initiative of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (KFJ-STS-QYZX-114), One Hundred-Talent Plan of Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant numbers of Y629041021), Two-Hundred Talents Plan of Yantai (No. Y739011021), and Youth Innovation Team Project for Talent Introduction and Cultivation in Universities of Shandong Province.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. CAS Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes and Ecological Remediation, Yantai Institute of Coastal Zone Research (YIC), Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS); Shandong Key Laboratory of Coastal Environmental Processes, YICCAS, Yantai, 264003, Shandong, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Lu, Yichen Lin & Cui Zhang

  2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100049, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Lu, Yichen Lin & Jun Wu

  3. Center for Ocean Mega-Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 7 Nanhai Road, Qingdao, 266071, People’s Republic of China

    Jian Lu

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  1. Jian Lu
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  2. Yichen Lin
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  3. Jun Wu
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  4. Cui Zhang
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Contributions

Jian Lu: conceptualization; data curation; investigation; methodology; project administration; writing—original draft and review. Yichen Lin: formal analysis; investigation; methodology; writing—original draft. Jun Wu: methodology; investigation; software; writing—review and editing. Cui Zhang: methodology; investigation.

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Correspondence to Jian Lu.

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Lu, J., Lin, Y., Wu, J. et al. Continental-scale spatial distribution, sources, and health risks of heavy metals in seafood: challenge for the water-food-energy nexus sustainability in coastal regions?. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 63815–63828 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11904-8

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