Trends and risk assessment of heavy metals in the surface sediments of river-connected lakes: A case study of Dongting Lake

This study analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution characteristics, ecological risks, biological toxicity, and sources of Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, Hg, and As in the surface sediments of Dongting Lake, as well as the response of benthic macroinvertebrates to these pollutants. Among the three lake regions, the concentration of Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd, and As fell in the order of South Dongting Lake (SD) > East Dongting Lake (ED) > West Dongting Lake (WD), whereas the concentration of Hg fell in the order of WD > SD > ED. The concentrations of Cu, Zn, Pb, and As were 1.69-2.02 times the background values recorded in 1986, whereas the concentrations of Cd and Hg were 8.97 and 5.32 times the background values, respectively. The ecological risk was low for Cu, Zn, Pb, As but high for Hg and Cd. For Dongting Lake in aggregate, the heavy metals caused considerable ecological risk and high biotoxicity, although the situation was improving in recent years. Cd, As, Cu, Pb, Hg were mainly from agricultural sources, mining sources, tire wear and agricultural sources, industrial smelting and mining sources, industrial processing and smelting sources, respectively, and Zn was from mixed sources. A total of 66 species of benthic macroinvertebrates were identified from the sediments. From 2018 to 2022, the dominant benthic macro- invertebrates gradually shifted from the pollution-resistant in Tubificidae to those in Gammarus, Bellamya, Valvatidae, etc. Oligochaetes and Stictochironomus spp. exhibited extremely high response to heavy metals and could serve as indicator organisms of heavy metal pollution.