Heavy Metal Contamination and Ecological Risk Assessment of Swine Manure Irrigated Vegetable Soils in Jiangxi Province, China

Heavy metal are often added to animal fodder and accumulate in the soils with swine manure. In this study, heavy metal (Cu, Pb, Cd, Zn, As and Cr) concentrations were determined in agricultural soils irrigated with swine manure in Jiangxi Province, China. Results showed that the average concentrations of Cu, Zn, As and Cr (32.8, 93.7, 21.3 and 75.8 mg/kg, respectively) were higher than the background values, while Pb and Cd (15.2 and 0.090 mg/kg, respectively) were lower than the background values. Contamination factors C f i indicated that they were generally moderate for Cu, Zn, As and Cr and generally low for Pb and Cd. The contamination degree ( C d ) was calculated to be 7.5–10.0 indicating a moderate degree of contamination. The geoaccumulation index ( I geo ) indicated that the soils were unpolluted with Zn, Cd and Pb, while unpolluted to moderately pollute with Cr, Cu and As. The single ecological risk factor E r i revealed that the six heavy metals all belonged to low ecological risk. The ecological risk indices suggested that all the sampling sites were at low risk level.