The quantitative source apportionment of heavy metals in peri-urban agricultural soils with UNMIX and input fluxes analysis

Abstract The intensive human activities are the major cause of heavy metals pollution in suburban farmland, which poses threats to soil environment and safety of agricultural products. The combination of spatial analysis (SA), principal component analysis (PCA), input fluxes analysis (IFA) and UNMIX model have precisely analyzed the sources and relative contribution of heavy metals from each source. The results revealed that average contents of Cr, Ni, Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd were 37.82, 13.65, 17.93, 93.78, 48.84 and 0.24 mg kg−1, respectively. The spatial distribution indicated significant effect of industrial activities and traffic emissions on contents of heavy metals in topsoil. According to UNMIX model, the contribution rates of soil parent material, industrial/ traffic emissions, and agricultural activities to heavy metals in soil were 49.15%, 35.00% and 15.85% respectively. Which indicated largest contribution of natural sources, but input of human activities including industry, transportation and agriculture couldn’t be ignored. The input fluxes analysis (IFA) reveals that atmospheric deposition was main source of heavy metals in soil, followed by fertilizer and irrigation. This study has presented reliable methods for analysis of sources of heavy metals in suburban farmland soil however, combination of UNMIX and IFA can accurately identify and quantify pollution sources.