Elements are the indelible imprint left by the Earth on rivers and life entities. Here, we unveil the evident inheritance of persistent elements, from the Earth's upper continental crust, through the Yellow River, to the associated life entities along a 5,200 km continuum of the Mother River of the Chinese nation. In particular, we confirm the coherence of “metal community” composed of more than 60 detected metallic elements throughout water, suspended particulate matter, and sediment in the river, and further extend such elemental correlations to fish species and even the tissues in human body. Our study also reveals an interesting fact that media-specific metal abundance occurs in a persistent inverse order with metal toxicity, and microbial cells in the river tend to establish their own self-defense systems against toxic metals through hosting higher-level resistance genes. These findings not only stress the human needs for integrated trace element provision, but also highlight the fundamental importance of elemental coherence in the river-coordinated Earth-life systems for establishing drinking water and dietary standards that benefit ecological and human health.

中文翻译：

---

河流喂养的地球-人类系统中元素的普遍相干性


元素是地球在河流和生命实体上留下的不可磨灭的印记。在这里，我们揭示了持久性元素的明显遗传，从地球的上部大陆地壳，穿过黄河，到中华民族母亲河 5,200 公里长的连续体上的相关生命实体。特别是，我们确认了由水中检测到的 60 多种金属元素、悬浮颗粒物和河流沉积物组成的“金属群落”的连贯性，并将这种元素相关性进一步扩展到鱼类物种甚至人体组织。我们的研究还揭示了一个有趣的事实，即介质特异性金属丰度与金属毒性呈持续反比，河流中的微生物细胞倾向于通过承载更高水平的抗性基因来建立自己的自我防御系统来抵御有毒金属。这些发现不仅强调了人类对综合微量元素供应的需求，还强调了元素相干性在河流协调的地球生命系统中对于建立有益于生态和人类健康的饮用水和饮食标准的根本重要性。