Defining and modeling the soil geochemical background of heavy metals from the Hengshi River watershed (southern China): Integrating EDA, stochastic simulation and magnetic parameters

In this study, the geochemical backgrounds for four potentially toxic heavy metals (copper 200 mg/kg; zinc 230 mg/kg; lead 190 mg/kg and cadmium 1.85 mg/kg) Cu, Zn and Cd exceeded the soil Grade II limits (for pH < 6.5) from the Chinese Environmental Quality Standard for Soils (GB 15618-1995) (EQSS) which are 100, 200, 250 and 0.3 mg/kg for Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd, respectively. In particular, the geochemical background level for Cd exceeds standard six times. Results suggest that local public health is at high-risk along the riparian region of the Hengshi River, although the watershed ecosystem has not been severely disturbed.