اندازه گیری و ارزیابی ریسک اکولوژیکی مربوط به آلودگی فلزات سنگین (کادمیوم، سرب، کروم، مس و روی) در یک اکوسیستم تولیدکننده مواد غذایی

Introduction and purpose: The consumption of agricultural products cultivated&nbsp;in soils contaminated with heavy metals is very health-threatening. Therefore, the&nbsp;implementation of an inclusive and multilateral assessment of the heavy metal&nbsp;risk on the verge of their entrance to the food chain is a matter of fundamental&nbsp;importance. Regarding this, the present study was conducted with the aim of&nbsp;monitoring the concentration of heavy metals in the surface soil of grape gardens&nbsp;and zoning the area in terms of geoaccumulation index (Igeo), contamination&nbsp;factor, degree of contamination, modified degree of contamination (MDC),&nbsp;pollution load index (PLI), and ecological risk index (RI).&nbsp;Methods: For the purpose of the study, 31 grape gardens were selected in Gahru&nbsp;region (i.e., the main center of grape production) through simple random sampling&nbsp;technique. The surface soil samples were transferred to the laboratory for the&nbsp;analysis of the concentration of cadmium, lead, chromium, copper, and zinc.&nbsp;Results: According to the results, the concentration of the metals in the region&nbsp;was Zn > Cu > Pb > Cr > Cd with the mean total concentrations of 74.87, 55.31,&nbsp;22.32, 9.81, and 0.91 mg/kg, respectively. Based on the results of the PLI, six&nbsp;grape gardens were classified as insignificantly contaminated (1&le;PLI&le;2), and the&nbsp;remaining gardens were classified as noncontaminated (PLI<1). In additon, the&nbsp;results of the RI revealed that 3, 4, and 24 gape gardens had significant (RI>300),&nbsp;medium (150<riConclusion: In the present study, the Igeo and MDC had higher efficiency and&nbsp;flexibility in the classification of the area in terms of critical metals and critical&nbsp;stations. Meanwhile, cadmium and copper caused the highest concern in some&nbsp;of the grape gardens of the investigated region. Therefore, it is suggested to&nbsp;prevent the entrance of larger amounts of cadmium in the area by training and&nbsp;raising the awareness of the gardeners about the amount of phosphate fertilizers&nbsp;and fungicide and encouraging them to use animal manures and take preventive&nbsp;measures. In addition, the cadmium contamination in the area should be reduced&nbsp;by implementing a soil refinery program and cultivating cadmium adsorbents.</ri