Positive matrix factorization as source apportionment of soil lead and cadmium around a battery plant (Changxing County, China)

• Published in: Environmental science and pollution research international Vol. 21; no. 12; pp. 7698 - 7707
• Main Authors: Xue, Jian-long, Zhi, Yu-you, Yang, Li-ping, Shi, Jia-chun, Zeng, Ling-zao, Wu, Lao-sheng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Berlin/Heidelberg Springer Berlin Heidelberg 01.06.2014; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Agricultural practices; Agronomy; Analytical chemistry; Apportionment; Aquatic Pollution; Atmospheric Protection/Air Quality Control/Air Pollution; Battery; Cadmium; Cadmium - analysis; China; Earth and Environmental Science; Ecotoxicology; Electric Power Supplies; Environment; Environmental Chemistry; Environmental Health; Environmental Monitoring - methods; Geostatistics; Heavy metals; Industry; Lead (metal); Lead - analysis; Mathematical analysis; Metals, Heavy - analysis; Models, Statistical; Pollutants; Pollution; Pollution sources; Principal components analysis; Research Article; Soil (material); Soil contamination; Soil Pollutants - analysis; Soil pollution; Soils; Waste Water Technology; Water Management; Water Pollution Control; China; Zhejiang China; Receptor model; Anthropogenic influences; Heavy metal pollution; Spatial variation; Source apportionment
• ISSN: 0944-1344; 1614-7499
• DOI: 10.1007/s11356-014-2726-x

Chemical compositions of soil samples are multivariate in nature and provide datasets suitable for the application of multivariate factor analytical techniques. One of the analytical techniques, the positive matrix factorization (PMF), uses a weighted least square by fitting the data matrix to determine the weights of the sources based on the error estimates of each data point. In this research, PMF was employed to apportion the sources of heavy metals in 104 soil samples taken within a 1-km radius of a lead battery plant contaminated site in Changxing County, Zhejiang Province, China. The site is heavily contaminated with high concentrations of lead (Pb) and cadmium (Cd). PMF successfully partitioned the variances into sources related to soil background, agronomic practices, and the lead battery plants combined with a geostatistical approach. It was estimated that the lead battery plants and the agronomic practices contributed 55.37 and 29.28 %, respectively, for soil Pb of the total source. Soil Cd mainly came from the lead battery plants (65.92 %), followed by the agronomic practices (21.65 %), and soil parent materials (12.43 %). This research indicates that PMF combined with geostatistics is a useful tool for source identification and apportionment.