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Julia Daniel

jdaniel7@stanford.edu
Impact of anthropogenic pollution on croplands: Coal emission
in Jianghan Plain, China

Julia Daniel Class of 2017 Potential Major: Earth Systems

Primary faculty advisor: Professor Scott Fendorf
Secondary advisor: Samantha Ying, Postdoctoral Scholar

Project Summary and Significance

As the most populous nation on Earth and the worlds largest exporter of goods,
China demands enormous amounts of energy. Indeed, today China is both the worlds
primary producer and primary consumer of electricity (CIA World Factbook, 2013).
Two-thirds of the electricity produced in China comes from coal, which translates to
around 4 billion short tons of coal burned per year, nearly half the worlds total (U.S.
Energy Information Administration, 2012). Today there are over 2,300 coal-fired power
plants spread across China, sending tons of coal-derived particulates into the air, (Stout,
2013). Many of these coal power plants are located within urban or agricultural areas,
where particulate contamination poses a serious threat to human health. Much is known
about the origins of Chinese smog and its effects on cancer and mortality rates in Chinese
urban areas; however, much less is known about the effects of these coal-based
particulates on agricultural yields, and human health impacts due to particulate ingestion.
We postulate that the damages these pollutants cause reaches far beyond the well-
understood direct health effects due to smog and inhalation. We seek to understand the
effect these airborne coal-derived contaminants have on Chinese agriculture in order to
aid managers in developing land-use policies that maximize yields and minimize adverse
health impacts.

I will be basing my work on the previous efforts of Professor Scott Fendorf and
his team at the Woods Institute for the Environment. The teams objective is twofold:
first, to understand how coal power plants proximity to agricultural land affects fly ash
distribution and deposition on said cropland, and second, to learn how fly ash deposition
contributes to the metal accumulation in soils used for cultivation. From there, it will be
possible to analyze the hydrologic transport and the soil biogeochemical reactions in
order to determine how the pollutants become available for uptake in crops. Up to this
point, the team has gathered soil and core samples around the Yangluo power plant,
determined the amount of fly ash emitted from the plant using the Integrated
Environmental Control Model (IECM), modeled the extent of atmospheric deposition
using the DUSTRAN puff dispersion model, and analyzed the lead (Pb) isotopic
Julia Daniel
jdaniel7@stanford.edu
composition in the surface soil samples using quadrupole inductively coupled plasma-
mass spectrometry (Q-ICP-MS).

Research Objectives

Based on the previous work done by Professor Fendorf and his team, it remains to
be seen how much of the trace metals in the soils originates in fly ash from the power
plant, versus how much is due to the natural abundance of these elements in the Yangluo
area within the Jianghan Plain. This is vital in order to understand the extent of the threat
coal-fired power plants may pose to crop cultivation. My work will focus on comparing
elemental concentrations between Yangluo soils and deep core samples in order to
determine the extent to which fly ash deposition contributes to surface trace metal
concentrations, as deep core samples will likely be unaffected by surface pollution.
Secondly, I will determine the source of any discrepancies between the concentrations of
naturally-occurring core metals and the surface metals by using Pb isotopes as a source
tracer.

Location and Sample Source

The Yangluo power plant is located just northwest of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei
Province, in east-central China. The plant is typical of many Chinese coal power plants in
size, use, and location type, and therefore provides an excellent model for our needs. Its
location outside a growing metropolis of over 8 million people was chosen to meet the
demand for electricity, without regard for its proximity to large areas of agricultural land.
The team has previously determined that the Yangluo plant emits approximately 0.14
tons of fly ash per hour, nearly a third of which lands on agricultural land. (Ying, 2014)
In 2012, Samantha Ying gathered soil samples at 62 sites within a 10-kilometer
radius of the Yangluo Power Plant. At each site, samples were taken at the soil surface
and at a depth of 10 cm. I will be analyzing the Pb isotopic composition in deep cores
taken from surface to 20 meters subsurface depth from the Jianghan Plain. These deep
cores will provide the isotopic signature of the natural, geogenic Pb, which will be used
as one of the end member values in the isotopic mixing model. The mixing model will be
used to determine the contribution of fly ash to the Pb measured in the soil samples.







Julia Daniel
jdaniel7@stanford.edu
Research Methods

To understand the extent to which fly ash is contributing to metal concentrations
at the surface, I will first be measuring the total elemental concentrations of all trace
elements with particular attention to arsenic, lead, cadmium, chromium, and mercury in
the soil and deep core samples using X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) Spectroscopy. This
work will be carried out in the Environmental Measurements lab (EM-1) in the Green
Earth Sciences facility.
Following this data collection, I will determine the source of the Pb content of the
soils by performing dilute acid extractions on the soil samples and then measuring the
isotopic ratios of Pb in the samples (
207
Pb/
206
Pb and
208
Pb/
206
Pb ratios) using Inductively
Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). This process will involve incubating 1 g
soil in 10 mL dilute Optima grade acid (0.5 M HNO
3
) for 24 hours. Then the samples
will be centrifuged, filtered, and diluted to prepare for Pb measurement on Q-ICP-MS in
order to find the isotopic ratios.
Finally, I will process both the XRF and the ICP-MS data using Excel and R. I
will compare the Pb isotopic ratios found in the soil using ICP-MS with the isotopic
ratios of fly ash calculated by Professor Fendorf and his team during their analysis of the
coal combustion process within the power plant. I will also compare the elemental ratios
of the surface soils to those of the core samples, as I will have determined through XRF.
This will allow me to determine the percentage of trace metals in the soil which originate
in the fly ash from the power plant, and the percentage which occur naturally in the
Yangluo area of the Jianghan Plain using the mixing model described above.

Projected Work Plan

Spring quarter: To prepare for the laboratory component of the project, I will
spend spring quarter reading background material on general geochemical
concepts necessary to understand trace metal cycling in agricultural soils. This
will come in the form of select journal articles, reviews, and textbooks to be
provided by advisor Samantha Ying. I will gain familiarity with
reduction/oxidation reactions, adsorption mechanisms, and precipitation reactions
controlling trace metal mobility in soils along with an overview of related
laboratory methods.
Weeks 1-3: Work in lab under Samantha Ying to process soil samples and
measure total elemental concentration in soils using X-ray fluorescence (XRF)
spectroscopy. Begin collecting data on Chinese soils and deep cores using X-ray
technology available in Environmental Measurements facility (EM-1 facility in
Green Earth Sciences).
Julia Daniel
jdaniel7@stanford.edu
Weeks 4-6: Work in lab under Samantha Ying to perform dilute acid extractions
on Chinese soil cores for Pb isotopic measurement using ICP-MS.
Weeks 7-9: Process and analyze XRF and Pb isotope data using Excel and R
programming.
Week 10: Create final figures for project write up and lab meeting presentation in
Soil Biogeochemistry weekly group meeting. Prepare final summaries and
conclusions. Begin developing presentation for SURPS.


Proposed Budget

Item Description Requested Amount Total Requested Amount
Student stipend $600 /40-hr week x10 wks $6000
Laboratory analysis
costs for materials and
XRF and ICP-MS costs
$500 $500
Grand total requested amount: $6500


Sources

Central Intelligence Agency, "World Factbook: China." Last modified February 26, 2014.
Accessed February 27, 2014. https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-
factbook/geos/ch.html.

Lambin, E., S. Fendorf, D. Freyberg, S. Rozelle, and J. Wilcox. "Final EVP Report."
working paper., Stanford University, Woods Institute for the Environment, 2014.

Lambin, E., S. Fendorf, D. Freyberg, S, Rozelle, and J. Wilcox. "Year 1 EVP Report."
working paper., Stanford University, Woods Institute for the Environment, 2012.

Stout, D. "Why Pollution in China is So Awful." Time Magazine, December 13, 2013.
http://world.time.com/2013/12/13/one-map-shows-you-why-pollution-in-china-is-
so-awful/ (accessed February 26, 2014).

U.S. Energy Information Administration, "China." Last modified February 04, 2014.
Accessed February 26, 2014. http://www.eia.gov/countries/cab.cfm?fips=ch.

Ying, S.C., and Schaefer, M.V. "China University of Geosciences Wuhan Research
Update." lecture., Stanford University Department of Environmental Earth
System Science, 2014.

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