Distribution characteristics of elements in soils and environment quality evaluation in the Xiaoqing River valley, northern Shandong.

The authors systematically collected surface and deep soil samples from the Xiaoqing River drainage area, northern Shandong, analyzed the total contents and effective contents of elements in both kinds of sample and studied the abundance and deficiency of the elements in soils and their distribution characteristics using the geochemical method. According to the results of the studies, they come to a conclusion that Se, Pb and Hg are markedly enriched in surface soils, which is possibly due to surface pollution. Soil quality and soil environmental quality evaluations in the area based on a study of the total contents and effective contents of the elements (including heavy metal elements) in surface soil samples indicate that Mo, B and Mn are deficient over some large areas while the contents of other elements are higher than moderate in the study area, so the soil is rather nutritious; except that soils in some small areas are seriously polluted with Cr, Hg and Cd, there are no other areas polluted seriously with other elements, so the overall quality of the soil environment in the study area is rather good. However, the multi-factor environment quality evaluation reports that nearly 70% of the area has been subjected to initial pollution, to which we should pay more attention.