Spatiotemporal distribution, sources, and ecological risk of soil polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in Chinese urban agglomerations from 2000 to 2020

To investigate the spatial and temporal distribution, sources, and ecological risk of soil polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in China’s urban agglomerations from 2000 to 2020, a comprehensive search strategy was employed using the keywords “soil”, “PAHs”, and “city”. A total of 122 relevant studies that provided information on individual PAH content during the specified time period were collected. These studies encompassed 20 urban agglomerations in China, which were further categorized into two distinct periods: 2000 to 2010 and 2011 to 2020. The diagnostic ratio method and principal component analysis were employed to identify the sources of PAHs, and a risk quotient model was used to evaluate the soil ecological risk. The results revealed the average PAH content in the 20 urban agglomerations in China from 2011 to 2020 was 2,439 ± 4,633 ng·g-1, which exceeded the severe pollution level cut-off (> 1,000 ng·g-1). The soil PAH content in the period from 2011 to 2020 decreased by 28% compared to the soil PAH content in the period from 2000 to 2010. Soil PAH pollution was more severe in the northern urban agglomerations than in the southern urban agglomerations. Diagnostic ratios and principal component analysis demonstrated that the principal sources in most urban agglomerations in China were traffic and coal combustion. GeoDetector found that coal and fuel oil consumption were the main factors affecting the spatial differentiation of PAHs. The ecological risk quotient showed that approximately 80% of the urban agglomerations were at a medium-high ecological risk from 2000 to 2010, compared with 72% from 2011 to 2020. Thus, it is necessary to deepen energy structure reform to alleviate the threat of serious pollution caused by coal and fuel oil in urban agglomerations.