A Heavy Metal Network: Connecting Remediation Strategies

Abstract

Heavy metals in the environment are negatively affecting ecosystems and human life. The anthropogenic source of heavy metals has increased because of sludge from wastewater plants, tanneries, fertilizers, pesticides, and mining industry. As well as environmental conditions change, there is an effect of sedimentation of heavy metals in natural sediments which affect groundwater sources. Thus, the relevance of the present bibliometric work is to address the different interactions between heavy metals and natural sediments. Therefore, this work claims a perspective to predict heavy metal precipitation behaviors in the presence of cations and anions, changes of pH considering its mineral and organic forms, and, solid and liquid phase displacement, migrations towards the contaminated soil and cationic stabilization of heavy metals. In this sense, Cd, As, Mo, Cr, Al, Mn, Al, Cd, Hg, Zn, Pb, Cu, Co, and Ni are mostly correlated with basic pH and Ca/Mg/Fe/Mn minerals. This network has also found that there is a link connection between the contamination source i.e. fertilizers, pesticides and biosolids, and physical-chemical parameters like ionic strength, oxidation-reduction potential, and salinity. Thus, the scope of the present work includes a different perspective in looking remediation strategies by the generation of a connectionist system.Keywords: Speciation, bioaccumulation, adsorption, recalcitrance, network