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High concentration of heavy metals caused by soil pollution processes vary in a three-dimensional space. This study focuses on a strip of land which was sampled at three different depths. Fuzzy classification by fuzzy k-means was used to analyze the spatial variability for each separate layer. The concentrations of heavy metals showed abrupt changes in geographical space and the coefficients of variation...
This study tests the hypothesis that heavy metals deposited from the atmosphere are bound preferentially to soil aggregate surfaces mainly in forms of higher solubility than in aggregate cores. Soil aggregates (2-20 mm in diameter) were sampled along two gradients of heavy metal deposition from the atmosphere. Near Dornach/Switzerland (DOR) heavy metal deposition originates from a brass foundry, and...
The application of biosolids to agricultural lands can have both beneficial and harmful effects. Due to the potential for the contamination of surface and ground water by nitrates, metal contaminants and pathogens from biosolids, careful guidelines have to be established for their use in land application. Guidelines must be based on actual data from trials carried out under appropriate environmental...
Forty-five soil samples from the O- and C-horizons were taken in a 12,000 km 2 area on the borders of Finland, Norway and Russia. The nickel smelter at Nikel, the ore roasting plant at Zapoljarnij, both in Russia, and the iron ore mine and processing plant at Kirkenes in Norway, are all situated within this area. Element levels and variation in both soil horizons (two different extractions...
In this study we measured the effects of using of secondary treated sewage effluent for irrigation (3.5 y) of a hardwood plantation (Eucalyptus or Casuarina) on the abundance and species composition of protozoa and nematodes in soil. Measurable populations of protozoa and free-living nematodes were observed in all treatments. Application of secondary treated sewage effluent had a stimulatory effect...
A sequential extraction procedure, used to remove the heavy metals in specifically adsorbed and easily reducible manganese (Mn) oxide fractions, was used to study the transformation of heavy metals added to an alkaline soil. Most of the endogenous Cu (86%) and Pb (79%) were found in the residual fraction (RES) which was considered to be mainly highly crystalline Fe oxides and silicate minerals. The...
This study reports the degree and the extent of mercury contamination in sandy soils surrounding a chloralkali plant at Estarreja, Portugal. Total mercury concentration in the soils studied is at a maximum in the upper 5 cm, ranging from 117 to 49,233 μg kg -1 . The profile distribution pattern for total mercury together with the results of a sequential extraction suggest that the element...
The objective of this study was to assess the extent and severity of surface soil contaminations from urban parts of the Bangkok metropolitan region. We sampled 30 soils at 0-5 cm depth along a N-S-bound `main axis' with `suburb', `central', and `industrial' branches at a right angle. All soils were Eutric or Dystric Gleysols derived from 2->30 yr old deposits consisting of clayey loam, quartz...
The abundant gypsiferous soils of the semi-arid central Ebro valley are very sensitive to environmental change. Poor land management practices have caused severe degradation of the soils near the city of Zaragoza, leading to loss of productivity and of ecological function and badland formation on the slopes. The use of sewage sludge for land rehabilitation is increasingly being considered as a technical...
Geostatistics is used in soil science to map spatial distributions of soil properties from limited samples. Covariance models provide the basic measure of spatial continuity which is used to weight the information available at different sample locations, as in kriging. Traditionally, a closed-form analytical model is fitted to allow for interpolation of sample covariance values while ensuring the...
The recognition of the potential health hazards associated with heavy metals has focused attention on the levels and behaviours of these elements both in natural and contaminated environments. Various soil types developed from different parent materials in Sicily, Italy, have been analysed in order to compare heavy metal distribution under different geopedological conditions. Total metal concentrations,...
Both estimation and simulation approaches are formulated as the selection of a set of attribute values that are optimal for criteria that are typically conflicting. Estimation amounts to minimize local criteria such as a local error variance, whereas stochastic simulation aims to reproduce global statistics such as the histogram or semivariogram. A simulated annealing (SA) algorithm is presented to...
This paper summarises our recent field studies on the microbial communities of boreal coniferous forest humus exposed to environmental stress, heavy metals and changes in humus pH. The microbial community was measured using the phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and Biolog(R) analyses, and the actual factor in the environment exerting the selective pressure on the bacterial community was estimated with...
Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) is a recent analytical technique that is based upon the measurement of emission lines generated by atomic species close to the surface of the sample, thus allowing their chemical identification. In this work, the LIBS technique has been applied to the determination of total contents of heavy metals in a number of reference soil samples. In order to validate...
Robust estimators of the variogram can be used to identify a random function that describes the background variation of a soil property with the minimum influence of contaminants from a quasi point process. A method is proposed to exploit this to identify data which are best treated as a realization of a quasi point process rather than of a continuous random function for purposes of spatial analysis...
About 150 soil samples from 20 urban and 3 non-urban soil profiles in Nanjing were analyzed for total concentrations of Cu, Zn, Pb and Cr using ICP spectrometry. The Cu, Zn, Pb and Cr of 23 urban and non-urban topsoils (A horizon soils) were sequentially extracted into 5 fractions according to the method of Tessier [Anal. Chem. 51 (1979) 844]. Total Cu, Zn, Pb and Cr concentrations of the urban soils...
A number of volcanic agricultural soils from the Solofrana river valley (southwestern Italy), irrigated for a long time with contaminated river water or subjected to overflowing, were collected and examined for fundamental soil parameters and total content and distribution of Fe, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn. Micromorphological properties, the effect of main soil characteristics on the distribution of...
Landslide deposits in serpentinitic terrain of northern California are common, and often support wet meadows, which are strikingly different from the surrounding xeric landscape. These landslide deposits provide an opportunity to observe pedogenic processes across differing moisture conditions and depositional environments in ultramafic terrain. The objective of this study was to assess predominant...
A 6-year study of the behaviour of heavy metals in Calcaric Fluvisols dedicated to agricultural use was made. The total metal content and the fractions extractable in bicarbonate, nitric acid, DTPA and citrate-dithionite solutions were determined and the mineralogical fractions to which the metals were bound were examined. When the factors that, according to the bibliography, most influence heavy...
Soils contaminated with heavy metals also contain a number of organic ligands, particularly in the rhizosphere and thus, a fraction of the bioavailable metals in soils likely exists in a complexed form. The presence of soluble, metal-complexing organic ligands can influence the fate and transport of metals as well as mineralisation of organic compounds. Oxalate and citrate complexed with Cd, Cu, Mg,...
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