Abstract Urban expansion and land‐use change are transforming human living environments, and PTEs (potentially toxic elements) pollution is exacerbating. However, the spatial distributions, risks, and drivers of soil PTEs enrichment in urban forest remain unclear. To elucidate this, 184 forest plots were examined in built‐up area of Nanchang, China (road forests, landscape forests, institution‐affiliated forests, and ecological public‐welfare forests), and classified based on different urbanization intensities. Nine soil PTEs (V, Cr, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Cd, and Pb) levels and pollution evaluation indices were calculated. Results showed a contamination factor of 2.02, a Nemerow pollution index of 2.40, and a potential ecological risk index of 169.66, indicating a moderate level of soil pollution in Nanchang. Cr was 38%–52% higher in landscape forests than that in the other forest types ( p < 0.05). Cr, Cd, and Pb deposition increased significantly with advancing urbanization intensity ( p < 0.05). Moreover, Cr, As, Cd, and Pb levels were 1.21–7.83‐fold higher than their background values in Nanchang. Soil total phosphorus, available phosphorus, NO 3 − , bulk density, and total potassium were key factors affecting PTEs. This study provides a theoretical basis for mitigating PTEs pollution in urban forest management within subtropical red soil regions.
Ran et al. (Sun,) studied this question.