The black soil region in Northeast China is one of the major grain-producing areas in China. Soil contamination with heavy metals may threaten the sustainability of crop production, which may pose potential threat to food safety and human health.

Prof. LIU Jingshuang of Northeast Institute of Geography and Agroecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (NEIGAE) and his team initiated a research program to assess the environmental baseline values of agricultural producing area in Jilin province. The characterization of the content and sources of heavy metals in soil are necessary to reduce metal inputs and to establish quality standards on a regional level that allow the detection of sampling sites affected by pollution.

By sampling the surface soil samples in Dehui, the researchers addressed the content, extent of metal accumulation, spatial distribution and possible sources of heavy metals in agricultural soils. The sampling design was based on the distribution of local agricultural land use and the prevailing wind direction to assess the human activity on soil quality.

The research results indicated an insignificant contamination of these metals in the area; soil Cr, Ni, and Zn had a lithogenic origin, whereas soil contamination of Cu and Pb was mainly related to human activities.

The research observation has been published in Chemosphere, 2013(92): 517-523, doi:10.1016/j.chemosphere.2013.02.063.