Influence of urbanization and industrialization on metal enrichment of sediment cores from Shantou Bay, South China

•Metals had downward decrease with overall maximum value at top layers.•River input, metropolitan and port facilities discharge are identified as major sources.•Pb and Cd are mainly enriched metals.•Cu, Pb, Zn and Cd had potential ecotoxicological risks to organisms in Shantou Bay.

Four sediment cores were collected to investigate geochemical sources and to assess enrichment and pollution of metals in sediments from Shantou Bay, an area experiencing rapid economic development on the Southeastern Coast of China. The results indicated that the concentrations of the majority of metals showed a decrease with depth, with overall maximum values in the top layers, and that different sampling locations in the Bay received slightly different types of inputs. Three major sources were identified by correlation analysis and principal component analysis: river inputs, metropolitan, and port facilities discharge. Calculation of a pollution load index revealed overall low values, but the enrichment factor values for Pb and Cd were typically high for all cores. The mean concentrations of Cu, Pb, Zn and to some extent Cd exceeded the Effects-Range-Low values in the majority of the cases, indicating that there were possible ecotoxicological risks to organisms in Shantou Bay.