Deciphering the driving factors and probabilistic health risks of potentially toxic elements in arid surface water: Insights from the Tarim River Basin.

Potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in surface water in arid areas pose a serious threat to environmental safety and human health within a basin. It is important to determine the factors controlling PTEs and to assess the likelihood that they will pose a risk to human health in order to support the development of environmental protection and risk management strategies. In this study, a structural equation model and Bayesian method were combined to discuss the distribution and probabilistic health risks of PTEs in surface water in arid area, and the Tarim River Basin was taken as a case study.

Geochemical behavior of rare earth elements in agricultural soils along the Syr Darya River within the Aral Sea Basin.

The widespread use of rare earth elements (REEs) across various industries makes them a new type of pollutant. Additionally, REEs are powerful indicators of geochemical processes. As one of the two main rivers in the Aral Sea, identifying the geochemical behavior of REEs in agricultural soils of the Syr Darya River is of great significance for subsequent indicative studies.

Source apportionment of soil heavy metals with PMF model and Pb isotopes in an intermountain basin of Tianshan Mountains, China.

A boom in tourism may lead to the enrichment in heavy metals (HMs) in soils. Contamination with HMs poses a significant threat to the security of the soil environment. In this study, topsoil samples were collected from a tourist area of Sayram Lake, and the concentrations of HMs (Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn and Cd) were determined.

Identifying Seasonal and Diurnal Variations and the Most Frequently Impacted Zone of Aerosols in the Aral Sea Region.

With the desiccation of the Aral Sea, salt-alkali dust storms have increased in frequency and the surrounding environment has deteriorated. In order to increase our understanding of the characteristics and potential impact zone of atmospheric aerosols in the Aral Sea region, we evaluated seasonal and diurnal variation of aerosols and identified the zone most frequently impacted by aerosols from the Aral Sea region using CALIPSO data and the HYSPLIT model. The results showed that polluted dust and dust were the two most commonly observed aerosol subtypes in the Aral Sea region with the two accounting for over 75% of observed aerosols.

Self-Trained Deep Forest with Limited Samples for Urban Impervious Surface Area Extraction in Arid Area Using Multispectral and PolSAR Imageries.

Impervious surface area (ISA) has been recognized as a significant indicator for evaluating levels of urbanization and the quality of urban ecological environments. ISA extraction methods based on supervised classification usually rely on a large number of manually labeled samples, the production of which is a time-consuming and labor-intensive task. Furthermore, in arid areas, man-made objects are easily confused with bare land due to similar spectral responses.

Exploration of the driving factors and distribution of fecal coliform in rivers under a traditional agro-pastoral economy in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia.

Fecal coliform (FC) in river water is one of the threats to human health. To explore the pollution status of FC in rivers of Kyrgyzstan, a mountainous country with traditional agro-pastoral economy, 184 water samples from the rivers of Kyrgyzstan in low and high river flow period were analyzed. Spatial autocorrelation and classical statistical methods were used to analyze the spatiotemporal distribution and driving factors of FC.

Attribution of changes in the trend and temporal non-uniformity of extreme precipitation events in Central Asia.

Extreme precipitation events exhibit an increasing trend for both the frequency and magnitude on global and regional scales and it has already proven the impact of man-made global warming on the extreme precipitation amplification. Based on the observed datasets and global climate model (GCM) output, this study has evaluated the impact from anthropogenic forcing on the trend and temporal non-uniformity (i.e.

Spatial Distribution and Ecological Risks of the Potentially-Toxic Elements in the Surface Sediments of Lake Bosten, China.

Aiming at the pollution and ecological hazards of the lake sediments of Bosten Lake, once China's largest inland lake, the spatial distribution and influencing factors of the potentially-toxic elements in its surface sediments were studied with the methods of spatial autocorrelation, two-way cluster analysis, and redundancy analysis. Finally, based on the background value of potentially-toxic elements extracted from a sediment core, a comprehensive evaluation of the risk of these potentially-toxic elements was conducted with the potential-ecological-risk index and the pollution-load index. With data on the grain size, bulk-rock composition, and organic matter content, this comprehensive analysis suggested that with the enrichment of authigenic carbonate minerals, the content of potentially-toxic elements exhibited distinctive characteristics representative of arid regions with lower values than those in humid region.

Hydrochemical composition and potentially toxic elements in the Kyrgyzstan portion of the transboundary Chu-Talas river basin, Central Asia.

Water chemistry and the assessment of health risks of potentially toxic elements have important research significance for water resource utilization and human health. However, not enough attention has been paid to the study of surface water environments in many parts of Central Asia. Sixty water samples were collected from the transboundary river basin of Chu-Talas during periods of high and low river flow, and the hydrochemical composition, including major ions and potentially toxic elements (Zn, Pb, Cu, Cr, and As), was used to determine the status of irrigation suitability and risks to human health.

Heavy Metals and Related Human Health Risk Assessment for River Waters in the Issyk-Kul Basin, Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia.

The water resources of Central Asia play an important role in maintaining the fragile balance of ecosystems and the sustainable development of human society. However, the lack of research on the heavy metals in river waters has a far-reaching influence on public health and the sustainable development in Central Asia. In order to reveal the possible sources of the heavy metals and to assess the associated human health risks, thirty-eight water samples were collected from the rivers of the Issyk-Kul Basin during the period with low river flow (May) and the period with high river flow (July and August), and the hydrochemical compositions and major ions of heavy metals were analyzed.

Spatio-Temporal Variations of Satellite-Based PM Concentrations and Its Determinants in Xinjiang, Northwest of China.

With the aggravation of air pollution in recent years, a great deal of research on haze episodes is mainly concentrated on the east-central China. However, fine particulate matter (PM) pollution in northwest China has rarely been discussed. To fill this gap, based on the standard deviational ellipse analysis and spatial autocorrelation statistics method, we explored the spatio-temporal variation and aggregation characteristics of PM concentrations in Xinjiang from 2001 to 2016.

Environmentally sensitive grain-size component records and its response to climatic and anthropogenic influences in Bosten Lake region, China.

Using Cs and Pb dating and multi-proxy evidence from a 41-cm sediment core from Bosten Lake in China, the responses of sediment grain size to environmental changes were reconstructed over the past 150 years. After the end of the Little Ice Age, the climate of the Bosten Lake region became warmer and drier, and the lake water level decreased. The results indicated that the lowest water storage periods occurred at approximately 1920-1930 AD.

[Hydrochemical and Isotopic Characteristics of the Lake Balkhash Catchment, Kazakhstan].

Lake Balkhash is one of the largest lakes in the world. It is located in arid Central Asia and receives major water from the Ili River, which is an international river flowing across China and Kazakhstan. Hydrochemical and isotopic measurements of waters can provide an improved understanding of hydrogeochemical processes and environmental characteristics, which is useful for water resource management in arid regions.

Hydrochemical characteristics and irrigation suitability of surface water in the Syr Darya River, Kazakhstan.

The surface water hydrochemistry of the Syr Darya River in Kazakhstan was investigated at 39 locations to analyze regional hydrochemical characteristics and evaluate the irrigation suitability of the studied regions. The cations in the surface water are mainly Na, Ca, and Mg, while the anions are mainly SO. The main hydrochemical type is Ca-Mg-SO-Cl.

Spatial distribution and controlling factors of surface water stable isotope values (δO and δH) across Kazakhstan, Central Asia.

Climate change is expected to alter hydrological and biogeochemical processes in Central Asia (CA), and surface water stable isotope values (δO and δH) can be used to examine these changes. Spatially extensive stable isotope data, however, are sparse, which constrains the understanding of hydrological processes in transboundary rivers across Kazakhstan. Therefore, we conducted a survey of surface water stable isotopes across the region.

Distribution, source analysis, and ecological risk assessment of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in the typical topsoil of the Issyk-Kul Lake Basin.

The concentration, distribution, compositional characteristics, and pollution sources of 16 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in the topsoil of Issyk-Kul Lake Basin were studied, and their ecological risks were evaluated in this paper. The total concentration of the 16 PAHs was 68.58-475.

Variation in aeolian environments recorded by the particle size distribution of lacustrine sediments in Ebinur Lake, northwest China.

Particle size analysis of lacustrine core sediments and atmospheric natural dust were conducted in the drainage area of Ebinur Lake in arid northwest China. Using a combination of (137)Cs and (210)Pb dating, a continuous record of aeolian transportation to the lake sediments and related factors over about the past 150 years was analyzed. Factor analysis revealed the particle-size distributions of riverine and aeolian sediments composed of the terrigenous materials of the lake deposits.

Geochemical Responses to Anthropogenic and Natural Influences in Ebinur Lake Sediments of Arid Northwest China.

Geochemical concentrations were extracted for a short sediment core from Ebinur Lake, located in arid northwest China, and mathematical methods were used to demonstrate the complex pattern of the geochemical anomalies resulting from the temporal changes in natural and anthropogenic forces on the lake sediments. The first element assemblage (C1) (aluminum, potassium, iron, magnesium, beryllium, etc.) was predominantly terrigenous; among the assemblage, total phosphorus and titanium were generally consistent with aluminum except with regards to their surface sequences, which inferred the differences of source regions for terrigenous detrital material led to this change around ca.

[Pollution and Potential Ecology Risk Evaluation of Heavy Metals in River Water, Top Sediments on Bed and Soils Along Banks of Bortala River, Northwest China].

This paper focuses on the sources, pollution status and potential ecology risks of heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Hg, As, Cd, Pb, and Zn) in the surface water, top sediment of river bed and soil along banks of Bortala River, which locates in the oasis region of Xinjiang, northwest China. Results showed that: (1) As a whole, contents of 7 tested heavy metals of Bortala River were low, while the maximum values of Hg, Cd, Pb, and Cr in the river water were significantly higher than those of Secondary Category of the Surface Water Quality Standards of People's Republic of China (GB 3838-2002) and Drinking Water Guideline from WHO. Analysis showed that the heavy metals contents of top sediment on river bed and soils along river banks were significantly higher than those of the river water.

[Spatial distribution of soil moisture and salinity and their influence factors in the farmland of Manas River catchment, Northwest China].

Applying methods of statistics and geo-statistics, Manas River catchment was selected as the research area to study the spatial distribution of soil moisture and salinity in the soil profile as. well as their influence factors. The coupling relationship between soil moisture and salinity presented in the spatial distribution was explored as well.