Distribution of heavy metals in coastal sediments under the influence of multiple factors: A case study from the south coast of an industrialized harbor city (Tangshan, China)

This research investigated the spatial distribution of heavy metals, including mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), arsenic (As), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), and zinc (Zn), in surface sediments from the coastal area near to an industrial harbor (the Tangshan Harbor, China) with 161 sediment samples. The results showed that the distribution patterns of Cr, Cu, Zn, Ni, and Pb were similar to each other, high in the northwest, southeast, and southwest regions of the study area and low in the northeast region, which corresponded well with components of sedimental sizes. The uncontaminated specimen proportions for Hg, Cd, Cu, As, Ni, Pb, Cr, and Zn were 6.8%, 4.3%, 31.1%, 28.6%, 42.9%, 64.6%, 44.7%, and 50.3%, respectively. Based on principal component analysis (PCA) and positive matrix factorization (PMF), four distinct sources of pollution were quantitatively attributed, including agricultural activities (22.08%), fossil fuel consumption (24.14%), steel production (29.78%), ..., Study area and sampling sites
As a shallow semi-enclosed epicontinental sea, the Bohai Sea received large amounts of terrestrial matter from coastal rivers, especially the Yellow River, which predominates in sediment transportation (Wang et al., 2014; Liu et al., 2020). There are several coastal rivers flowing into the study area with large amounts of sand, such as the Haihe River, the Jiyunhe River, the Daqinghe River, the Luanhe River, the Liaohe River, and the Yellow River.
Heavy metals within sediments were redistributed by currents in the area. The relatively warm and saline Yellow Sea Warm Current (YSWC) flows into the Bohai Sea from the Yellow Sea in winter (Xu et al. 2009). The North Shandong Coastal Current (NSCC) originates from the west coast of Bohai Bay and flows along the northern coast of the Shandong Peninsula in winter and summer (Fig. 1; Yuan et al., 2020). The main tidal constituent in the Bohai Sea is the semi-diurnal tidal component M2 with an average amplitude of 2...,