Heavy metal contamination and source in arid agricultural soil in central Gansu Province, China

Concentrations of copper (Cu), lead (Pb), chromium (Cr), mercury (Hg), and arsenic (As) were measured in arid agricultural and irrigated agricultural soils collected in Daba Village, Shajiawuan Village, Gangou Village and Sifangwu Village, located in central Gansu Province, China. Concentrations except Hg and Pb were lower than the background values in grey calcareous soil in the selected arid agricultural soils. Pb concentration exceeded the threshold of arid agricultural soils in China by 72.46%. These results showed that there was indeed serious pollution with Pb, a slight pollution problem for other selected metals in the irrigated agricultural soils in Daba Village. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to assess the soil data, applying varimax rotation with Kaiser Normalization. The result showed that the irrigated factor, agricultural factor and anthropogenic factor all contributed to the relations between selected chemical properties. The main factor of accumulation of Cu, Pb, Cr, Hg and As was lithological factor in arid agricultural areas. There is a striking dissimilarity of origin of Cu, Pb, Cr, Hg and As in agricultural soil between the irrigate agriculture and arid agriculture.