Pollution assessment, ecological risk and source identification of heavy metals in paddy soils and rice grains from Salem, South India

• Latent Zn deficient conditions existed in 30% of the paddy soils. • Pollution assessment methods showed Cd and Pb pose strong potential ecological risks. • Grain Cd, Pb, and Fe contents exceeded the prescribed limits. • THQ and HI values >1 for Cd and Pb indicate potential health risks. The present study investigated concentrations of metals (Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Cd) in paddy soils and rice tissues of nine different widely used indica rice varieties in Salem district, India. The order of DTPA soil available metal contents (mg kg -1 ) were Fe (33.50) > Mn (8.86) > Cu (2.58) > Pb (1.99) > Zn (1.67) > Ni (1.48) > Cd (0.13). Pollution load index (PLI) levels for Cd (1.28) were ‘moderately polluted’, contamination factor (CF) and enrichment factor (EF) values for all metals showed ‘medium contamination’ and ‘less enrichment’ except for Cu and Pb. Ecological risk factor (ERF) and potential ecological risk index (PRI) values of Cd (31.94 and 287.50) showed ‘moderate risk’ and ‘strong ecological risk’. Bio-accumulation factor (BAF) levels of Cd (48.12) and Pb (27.89) are classified as ‘high concentrators’. Translocation factor (TF) values of Pb (2.9), Cd (2.5) and Ni (1.7) were greater than one for roots to plants. Children had higher target hazard quotient (THQ) and hazard index (HI) values for Cd, Pb and Ni than adults. Principal component analysis (PCA) revealed with all parameters that they fell within the two primary factors 1 and 2, with an eigenvalue of 4.69 (33.52% variation) and 3.73 (26.66% variation), respectively. However, cluster analysis (CA) revealed three distinct groups between the metals studied. Although the soil metal contents were within the permissible levels, the grain Cd (6.07 mg kg -1 ), Pb (56.20 mg kg -1 ), and Fe (116.11 mg kg -1 ) contents in all the rice varieties exceeded the prescribed limits of 0.4, 0.2, and 15 mg kg -1 , respectively. Our findings will provide important data for metal enrichment in soils to implement more effective measures to reduce the contamination of metals in paddy fields.