Discrimination of lithogenic and anthropogenic influences on topsoil magnetic susceptibility in Central Europe

Abstract

The study was performed on the area of the three countries involved in the MAGPROX project (Poland, Czech Rep., Germany). In the first stage the basic map of magnetic susceptibility based on the field topsoil measurement was compiled with an average grid density of 10 km. In the second stage of the study, vertical distribution of magnetic susceptibility of ca. 600 topsoil cores (0.3 m long), collected over central Europe, was examined with respect to the anthropogenic or lithogenic influence on magnetic susceptibility of the soil surface, with the focus being on the interpretation of the areas showing high surface susceptibility values. The maximum values were mostly observed in depths of 3–4 cm. In general seven different types of susceptibility profiles from forest areas and one typical for urban soil are presented. They are a result of a combination of natural (litho- and pedogenic) and anthropogenic contributions. Our results prove that soil profiles, dominated by anthropogenic influence due to atmospherically deposited dust, are characterized by magnetically enhanced humuous layer, corresponding to layer with the highest concentration of heavy metals. Moreover, forest soils show in these cases higher magnetic susceptibility than soils in open areas (grassland, meadows or arable soils).