Assessment of physiochemical properties and concentration of heavy metals in agricultural soils fertilized with chemical fertilizers

Abstract

The present study aim to assess the effect of phosphate and urea fertilizers on the physicochemical properties, pH and electrical conductivity (EC) of the soil. The effect of these fertilizers on cation exchange capacity (CEC), organic matter (OM), and the possibility of contamination with heavy metals (HM) (Cr, Cu, Cd, Mn, Zn, Ni, Fe, and Pb) were studied on the soils of Alshati agricultural project at different seasons after forty years of fertilization. Uncultivated soil samples were also analyzed for comparison and considered as reference. Mean values of soil pH, EC, CEC, and OM ranged between 6.88-7.32, 0.14–0.26 μS/cm, 2.95–4.19 Cmol/kg and 0.49–0.53%, respectively, in all seasons. Concentrations of HMs were 9.50–38.38, 0.0–2.05, 0.0–0.47, 0.0–29.81, 0.0–13.85, 2.83–25.95 and 104–512.20 mg/kg respectively, for Cr, Cu, Cd, Mn, Zn, Ni and Fe. The concentrations of the HMs in the soil were found to be vary significantly with the seasons (winter, spring, summer, and autumn). However, no traces of Pb was found in the soil samples. The result showed a significant correlation between, pH, EC, CEC, OM and HM content of the soil. The geochemical index of contamination shows that there was no contamination with Cu, Cd, Zn, Pb, Cr, Mn, Ni, and Fe.