100 Years of Pb Deposition and Transport in Soils in Champaign, Illinois, U.S.A.

Abstract

In Illinois, atmospheric deposition is one major source of heavy metal inputs to agricultural land. The atmospheric Pb deposition and transport record in agricultural soils in Champaign, Illinois, was established by studying surface and subsurface soil samples collectedduring the past 100 years from the Morrow Plots on the campus of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Pb content in the soilsamples was measured and the Pb deposition fluxes were calculated. ThePb content in surface soils increased sharply in the first half of the20th century, and stayed invariant since. The maximum Pb flux from theatmosphere was estimated to be 27 (±14) μg cm-2 yr-1around 1940. The major pollution source for this increase probably was residential coal burning. It was estimated that in 50 yr, morethan 50% of the Pb input had been lost from the surface soils.