Driving effects and transfer prediction of heavy metal(loid)s in contaminated courtyard gardens using redundancy...

The distribution and migration of heavy metal(loid)s in the soil-vegetable systems of courtyard gardens near mining areas have rarely been investigated, leading to potential food safety risks for residents. Moreover, the existing research is mainly focused on the total content of heavy metal(loid)s (tMetals) rather than the bioavailable contents (aMetals). In this study, 26 and 28 pairs of soil and vegetable samples were collected from the courtyard gardens near the Realgar mine in Baiyun Town and the lead-zinc (Pb-Zn) mine in Shuikoushan Town, respectively. The tMetal and aMetal of cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), arsenic (As), Pb, chromium (Cr), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), Zn, manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), and calcium (Ca) in the samples were analyzed in this study. The results showed that courtyard gardens were polluted by various heavy metal(loid)s at varying degrees. The bioavailabilities of different metals varied significantly, among which Cd has the highest bioavailability (> 30%). In the transfer process of heavy metal(loid)s, the transfer rate (Tf) was ranked as soil-roots (1.50) > stems-leaves (1.07) > roots-stems (0.46) > stems-fruits (0.33). Redundancy analysis was used to evaluate the driving effects, and the results revealed that aCa, aZn, and aFe in soil could inhibit the absorption of aCd by plant roots. Soil organic matter was the inhibiting factor regarding the transfer of aAs and aCu, whereas it was also the promoting factor for transferring aPb, aNi, and aCr. Furthermore, the multilayer perceptron (MLP) could effectively predict the Tf of heavy metal(loid)s based on the aMetal. The R² values of the MLP were ranked as follows: 0.91 for As, 0.88 for Zn, 0.85 for Hg, 0.83 for Cu, 0.79 for Cr, 0.66 for Cd, 0.65 for Pb, and 0.52 for Ni. This study emphasizes the aMetal-based ecological characteristics and prediction ability. The study results are significant for guiding residents to strategize appropriate crop planting and ensure the safe production and consumption of vegetables.