Heavy metals in urban soils with various types of land use in Beijing, China

Heavy metal concentrations of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn were investigated for 127 urban soil samples collected from business area (BA), classical garden (CG), culture and education area (CEA), public green space (PGS), residential area (RA) and roadside area (RSA) in Beijing. The distribution of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn was mainly affected by anthropogenic sources, with their mean concentrations much higher than the background values of Beijing, while Cr and Ni were from natural sources. Among the 6 types of land use, the concentrations of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in CG were significantly higher than those in the other 5 types of land use (p<0.05), which were due to their historical use such as pigments, wood preservation and brassware. For the other 5 types of land use except CG, the mean concentration of Cd in RSA was significantly higher than those in BA, CEA, PGS and RA (p<0.05), suggesting Cd was mainly from traffic sources. The distribution maps revealed that the concentrations of Cu, Pb and Zn showed decreasing trends from the center to the suburb of Beijing, they increased with the age of the urban area.