Abstract: Tajikistan is a mountainous country in Central Asia and borders by China to the east. The background values of elements and the problems of environment and resources are very important for researching the similar climatic regions in China. In this study, seventeen elements in samples collected from topsoil, lacustrine and fluvial deposits in Tajikistan from September to October 2011 were measured so as to analyze their spatial distribution and further explore the formation causes and affecting factors. The results showed that the mean contents of the elements in all the soils/deposits were in an order of Ca>Al>Fe>Mg>Na>Ti>P>Mn>Sr>Zn>V>Cr>Ni>Cu>Pb>Co>Cd. Based on principal components analysis, it could be primarily considered that the distribution of elements in different soils/deposits were affected by both natural factors and human activities, and their affecting proportions were 60% and 12.6% respectively. The contents of Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn in urban soils and cultivated land soils were higher than that in basement and mountainous soils impacted slightly by human activities. The contents of heavy metals in soils/deposits in the western area with high population density were higher than that in the eastern sparselypopulated region. The Cd content in fluvial deposits near Dushanbe was much higher than that in other areas. The study results revealed that the topsoils/deposits in Tajikistan were gently affected by human activities at all, in some local regions, however, they were polluted by heavy metals in varying degrees. Moreover, Cu pollution was more serious than Pb and Zn pollution, and the Cd pollution was related to the industrial point source pollution.

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