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Ecological risk assessment of heavy metal-contaminated soil using the triad approach

  • Clean Up Korea 2019
  • Published:
Journal of Soils and Sediments Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Purpose

Heavy metal soil-pollution is of concern due to its adverse effects on the ecosystem and human health. However, conventional ecological risk assessments considering only chemical concentration have limitations because of an increased uncertainty in assessing soil-risk. Therefore, this study applied the Triad approach, using a tier system, for assessing site-specific ecological risk in heavy metal-contaminated soil. In addition, risk-level was determined to analyze the necessity of remediation in a contaminated site.

Materials and methods

Soil samples from six different sites, including heavy metal-contaminated regions (S1–S5) and a control site (C, unpolluted with heavy metals) were collected. Soil properties were assessed based on a tier system to evaluate the ecological risk of each site. The first step tier-1, involved calculating the soil pollution index (SPI) and the second, tier-2, involved assessing site-specific ecological risk based on three lines of evidence (LoEs), viz., chemistry (ChemLoE), ecotoxicology (EcotoxLoE), and ecology (EcoLoE). The total and bioavailable fractions of heavy metals in soil and bio-accumulated heavy metals in earthworms (Eisenia fetida) were measured for ChemLoE. A bioassay involving mortality and weight reduction rates of earthworms, and a root-elongation test of lettuce (Lactuca sativa sp.) was conducted for EcotoxLoE. Soil biological properties, soil basal respiration, and soil enzyme activities, were evaluated for EcoLoE. Final integrated risk (IR) was obtained by combining the risk-values of each LoE, determined using IR values and deviation of each LoE.

Results and discussion

Although three out of the five sampling sites had SPI > 1 in tier-1, all five sampling sites were subjected to tier-2 to evaluate site-specific ecological risk. In tier-2, ChemLoE (0.53–0.99) was higher than EcotoxLoE (0.05–0.43) and EcoLoE (0.00–0.29), indicating that chemical aspects impacted risk evaluation more than the toxicological and ecological aspects. The final IR ranged between 0.24 and 0.85; risk-level was classified as low (S2, S3, S5), moderate (S1), and high (S4) according to the IR value. Based on the risk-level, site S4 could require remediation for agricultural land-use.

Conclusions

The IR of each sampled site varied depending on the impact of heavy metals. Based tier-1 and tier-2 results, a thorough site-specific evaluation is required to understand the adverse effects of heavy metals on soil ecosystems, and the triad approach could be useful for managing heavy metals in soil.

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Acknowledgments

This study is supported by Rural Development Administration as "Monitoring on trace metal around industrial area in Chungbuk and Chungnam province” projects (PJ0125052020).

Funding

This study is supported by Rural Development Administration as “Monitoring on trace metal around industrial area in Chungbuk and Chungnam province” projects (PJ0125052020).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bio Environmental Chemistry, Chungnam National University, Daejeon, 34134, South Korea

    Young Kyu Hong, Dong Hyun Yoon, Jin Wook Kim & Sung Chul Kim

  2. Division of Soil and Fertilizer, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Wanju, 55365, South Korea

    Mee Jin Chae & Byung Koo Ko

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  1. Young Kyu Hong
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  2. Dong Hyun Yoon
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Contributions

YK was the first author who mainly wrote this manuscript. DH and JW organized the experiment, collected a data, and summarized a main finding for the manuscript. MJ and BK interpreted a data and gave a comment for improving the manuscript. SC managed and organized a full manuscript as a corresponding author. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Sung Chul Kim.

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The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

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Responsible editor: Daniel Alessi

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Hong, Y.K., Yoon, D.H., Kim, J.W. et al. Ecological risk assessment of heavy metal-contaminated soil using the triad approach. J Soils Sediments 21, 2732–2743 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02750-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-020-02750-9

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