Trend analysis of Cu contamination in environmental media of the Dawu River in the Dexing copper mine, Jiangxi Province

In 2004 and 2011, 140 environmental media samples were collected along the Dawu River of the Dexing copper mine in Jiangxi Province and analyzed for Cu. On the basis of the national standard, the spatial-temporal variation of Cu regional environment contamination and the source of heavy metals in plants were studied during the seven years. The results show that the samples whose values exceeded the national standard were mostly distributed at the source (70.3%) and in the upstream area (90.9%) of the Dawu River. Except for the surface water and soil, the trend of Cu in environmental media in 2004 and 2011 was on the whole worsening. And the cabbage whose content of Cu element in 2011 was 11.68 times that in 2004 seemed to be the obvious environmental media. There existed obvious differences of the variation regularity between plants and other environmental media such as surface water and soil. It is inferred that the source of Cu in plants has close relation with atmospheric deposition.