Agricultural Soil Contamination by Heavy Metals in Slovakia (original) (raw)
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Environmental Sciences Europe
Background Human activities considerably contribute to polluting potentially toxic element (PTEs) levels in soils, especially agricultural soils. The consistent introduction of PTEs in the environment and the soil pose health-related risks to humans, flora and fauna. One hundred and fifteen samples were collected in the district of Frydek Mistek (Czech Republic) in a regular grid form. The soil samples were air-dried, and the concentrations of PTEs (i.e. lead, arsenic, chromium, nickel, manganese, cadmium, copper, and zinc) were determined by ICP-OES (inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry). The purpose of this study is to create digitized soil maps that expose the human-related health risks posed by PTEs, estimate pollution indices, ascertain the spatially distributed patterns of PTEs, source apportionment and quantify carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic health risks using the sample location approach. Results The results revealed that the pollution assessment of th...
Environmental Geochemistry and Health, 2020
The sustenance of humans and livestock depends on the protection of the soil. Consequently, the pollution of the soil with potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is of great concern to humanity. The objective of this study is to investigate the source apportionment, concentration levels and spatial distribution of PTEs in selected soils in Frýdek-Místek District of the Czech Republic. The total number of soil samples was 70 (topsoil 49 and 21 subsoils) and was analysed using a portable XRF machine. Contamination factor and the pollution index load were used for the assessment and interpreting the pollution and distribution of PTEs in the soils. The inverse distance weighting was used for the spatial evaluation of the PTEs. The results of the analysis showed that the area is composed of low-tohigh pollution site. PTEs displayed spatial variation patterns. The average PTE concentration decreases in this Fe [ Ti [ Ba [ Zr [ Rb [ Sr [ Cr [ Y[Cu [ Ni [ Th order for the topsoil and also decreases in this Fe [ Ti [ Zr [ Ba [ Rb [ Sr [ Cr [ Y [ Cu [ Ni [ and Th order for the subsoil. These PTEs Cr, Ni, Cu, Rb, Y, Zr, Ba, Th, and Fe were far above the baseline European average value and the World average value level, respectively. The source apportionment showed the dominance of Cr, Ni, Rb, Ti, Th, Zr, Cu, Fe in the topsoil, while the subsoil was dominated by all the PTEs (factor 1 to 6) except Ba. The study concludes that indiscriminate human activities have an enormous effect on soil pollution.
Monitoring of Risky Elements in Zone of Pollution Strážske Area
Czech Journal of Food Sciences, 2009
The work aimed to evaluate the state of agricultural soil contamination what is important for the gaining of information needed for growing of hygienic safe raw materials and foodstuffs. Metallic pollution of soil in Zemplínska polluted area has begins by accumulation of heavy metals in soil, mainly resulting from location in vicinity of chemical and industrial factories, as well as from many others sources. The pH value development indicates gradual trend of soils acidification, except of alkalic ones reaching up to 20% from total arable soils in Slovakia. Acidification is process, where acidity of abiotic compounds has been increased. Soil reaction is a significant agrochemical property markedly affecting growing and developing of plants, and has directly effect on soil fertility, influencing the ecological conditions for plants and soil microorganisms. The site had been localised with GPS and 5 sampling places had been fixed. From these sites the soil samples were taken from 1 de...
Ecological Questions
This paper presents the result of studies of the geostatistical and geospatial assessment heavy metal pollution in soils caused by various technogenic sources to assess the environmental impact of industrial agglomeration activitiy in the Pavlograd city. The main sources of technogenic pollution in the Pavlograd city and suburban areas are industrial enterprises, coal-fired plants, mine dumps and other. The vast number of analyzed soil samples with weakly acidic pH values from 6.3 to 6.8 is characterized as loam (63 %), the rest are sand (33 %) and clay soils (4 %). The correlation matrix of metals data indicates positive correlation with correlation coefficient r 2 > 0.5 among texture-Ni (0.705) and Pb-Zn (0.695) within the Pavlograd city area. In the case of Cu (2.73) and Cd (4.27), the geoaccumulation index indicated "moderately to strongly" and "strongly to extremely" polluted soils accordingly. Means of pollution index (PI) for heavy metals were between uncontaminated (P P of this study show that industrial enterprises' activities lead to heavy metal contamination in the topsoil of the studied sites and close to the background values. Similar properties were confirmed by principal component analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. The PCA and cluster analysis results indicate that Cd, Ni, Pb, Cu, Zn and Mn in topsoil were affected by the technogenic activity. The spatial distribution characteristics of Cu, Pb, Cd and Zn in the geochemical maps are also similar. Highlighted are some of the halos in Pavlograd of high density of total soil contamination with heavy metals. The metals come from anthropogenic sources, mainly produced with four industrial enterprises in Pavlograd city. Mostly they are concentrated in the Southeast and West of the city and suburban areas of the Pavlograd district. Therefore, it is necessary arrangements to predict of the development of ecologically dangerous state of environmental pollution within the area of industrial enterprises of city. Environmental state, technogenic pollution, soil, heavy metals. agglomerations is extremely polluted in spite of the permanent convection and inter-boundary transfer (Parrish et al., 2011; Dufour et al., 2004). High level of air pollution is connected with various economic activities. As a result, the air quality is very low. The large number of industrial enterprises in the Dnieper The social, logistic, medical, urban heat and air quality consequences of urbanization and large industrial cities' govskoy, 2008; Crutzen, 2004). The air basin of industrial
Journal of Environmental Science and Health, Part A, 2017
Heavy metals (Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in soils and plants of four different ecosystems (forest, grassland, agro and urban ecosystem) at different distances from the source of the pollution were analyzed in order to assess and compare soil contamination in the various ecosystems and determine the potential accumulation of plants depending on the place they inhabit. Correlation relationships among heavy metals in soils differ depending on the ecosystem, and between soil and plant, the heavy metals showed significant correlation for Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn. Contamination factor (C f), degree of contamination (C d) and pollution load index (PLI) were used in order to determine the level of environmental contamination of the study area. All studied ecosystems were rated as moderately contaminated (except agroecosystem, which was found as low contamination ecosystem) according to C d and extremely polluted according to PLI. The highest pollution in both cases was found in urban ecosystem, and Cd, Cu and Fe were determined as the biggest pollutants.
2015
This study investigates the status of heavy metals contaminations in urban soils of Ostrava in the Czech Republic. The main aim of this study was determination of concentration of Cd, Pb, Zn, Cu, Mn, V and Hg, assessment of contamination levels of metals in urban soils and verification of potential source of metals contamination. Soil samples were collected from soil layer of 20 cm and metals were determined by atomic spectroscopy methods (F AAS, GF AAS, AMA 254). It was concluded that metals concentrations in studied soils increased in the following order: Hg < Cd < Cu < Pb < V < Zn < Mn, with mean values of Hg (0.17 mg/kg), Cd (0.20 mg/kg), Pb (66.93 mg/kg), Zn (209.51 mg/kg), Cu (38.49 mg/kg), V (105.18 mg/kg) and Mn (1349.85 mg/kg). The results obtained from assessment of metals pollution by means of index of geoaccumulation (I geo ), enrichment factor (EF), contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI), pollution index (PI) and integrated pollution ind...
Heavy metals distribution in agricultural topsoils in urban area
Environmental Earth Sciences, 2003
Intensive urbanisation of the Croatian capital of Zagreb has led to a situation where very good agricultural soils, developed mostly on Pleistocene eolian sediments and alluvial and proluvian Holocene sediments are entrapped within urban and suburban areas. Therefore the influence of urban and industrialised environments on the accumulation of metals in agricultural topsoils has been investigated. On an area of 860 km2 of the wider Zagreb region, 331 samples were taken according to a regular 1×1 km square mesh. Samples were dissolved in aqua regia and analysed for Cd, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb and Zn with flame atomic aqua regia absorption spectroscopy. The following concentration ranges have been determined: Cd 0.25–3.85 mg kg–1 (average 0.66 mg kg–1), Cu 4.30–183 mg kg–1 (average 20.8 mg kg–1), Fe 5.8–51.8 g kg–1 (average 27 g kg–1), Mn 79.2–1282 mg kg–1 (average 613 mg kg–1), Ni 0.70–282 mg kg–1 (average 49.5 mg kg–1), Pb 1.50–139 mg kg–1 (average 25.9 mg kg–1), and Zn 15.2–277 mg kg–1 (average 77.9 mg kg–1). Visualisation of the spatial data is made by the aid of GIS, and selected maps of the heavy metal concentrations in topsoils are displayed. Statistical multivariate analysis was carried out for quantitative study and data were processed by means of R-mode factor analysis, applying the varimax-raw rotational technique. F1, which grouped Cd, Pb, Cu, Zn and partially Ni, is characterized as a factor with strongly scattered anthropogenic influence. The elements in F2, Fe, Mn and partially Ni are mainly of geogenic, i.e. pedogenic, origin. The variations in concentrations of the investigated elements are thus of both natural and anthropogenic origins. The variations in the main soil constituents, particularly Fe and Mn, are determined primarily by the composition of different regolithic substrates of the fluvial origin in recent pedogenesis. High concentrations of nickel are also related to morphogenetic characteristics of the wider region, primarily basic and ultrabasic magmatic rocks of the surrounding mountain range. It is, however, assumed that the anomalous nickel concentrations in the vicinity of the highway and the airport are of anthropogenic origin, i.e. caused by fuel combustion. Copper is characterized by strongly scattered anthropogenic influence, which is related particularly to uncontrolled solid waste disposals or discharges of liquid waste from households or agricultural enterprises. With Zn, Pb and Cd, there are two possible ways of diffuse pollution. The Sava River, which drains the area and feeds the abundant Quaternary aquifer spreading below the major part of the investigated agricultural areas, has been exposed to intensive pollution by mining, industry and cities in the recent history. The part of the area with the highest determined concentrations of Zn, Pb and Cd was repeatedly flooded as recently as the previous decade; therefore, the recent sedimentation of the river deposits exposed to pollution is a very probable cause of the accumulation of metals in this until recently inundation area. The other way is atmospheric deposition of particles from urban sources (industrial emission, traffic, waste disposals, heating plants, etc.). In addition to agricultural enterprises, several economically important, but ecologically risky, facilities are situated in the vicinity of the water-protection area. The area is intersected by a very busy ring road, while a marshalling yard, the city dump, pharmaceutical and chemical industry, the district-heating plant and the airport are all located in close proximity. The geochemical maps show a clear relationship between human activities and metal concentration gradients.
The Remediation of Agricultural Land Contaminated by Heavy Metals
Poljoprivreda, 2020
The presence of heavy metals in an agricultural land is the primary cause of food product toxicity of a herbal and animal origin associated with a contaminated agricultural land. The anthropogenic sources of pollution, especially the fertilizers and pesticides in agriculture, are the primary sources of agricultural land contamination with heavy metals. The heavy metals whose monitoring is prescribed by the current legislation of the Republic of Croatia include cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn). The aim of this paper is to provide a review of heavy metals that cause contamination of an agricultural land, as well as a review of remediation technologies applied to reduce contamination. Furthermore, the paper considers three groups of remediation technologies, i.e., the biological, chemical, and physical ones, analyzing the applicability, efficiency, cost-effectiveness and accessibility in Croatia to encourage their wider implem...
Contamination of Selected Components of Environment in the Middle Spiš Region (Slovak Republic)
Proceedings, 2015
Region of Middle Spiš is among the most environmentally burdened areas in Slovakia. It is the result of a long tradition of industry and mining in the region. Rich deposits of copper and iron ores in the Slovak Ore Mountains necessitated the expansion of mining and metallurgical activities in the region of Middle Spiš. Mining activity and the bulk of the industrial activity in the area was closed early 90s of the 20th century. Centuries-long mining and industrial activities had and continues to have negative effects on all components of the environment, which is among the environmentally degraded and heavily burdened. The paper deals with the analysis of the quality and the environmental load of soils and water impacts of mining and industrial activities. The main aim of the articles the analysis of heavy metals of the sample in the soils and water and their comparison with the results during active mining and industrial operation. Our aim is to try to point out on the continue contamination of selected elements of the environment.