Distribution of cyanide in a cassava-mill-effluent polluted eutric tropofluvent soils of Ohaji Area, South-eastern Nigeria

Abstract

This study investigates on the distribution of cyanide on a cassava- mill- effluent polluted eutric tropofluvent soil in Ohaji Southern Nigeria. Three morphological land units were marked out namely, the background unit (pedon A), discharged point unit (pedon B) (the effluent receiving unit) and downstream unit (pedon C). Soil sample collection was carried out in five replicates in May 2007 adopting a randomized complete block design techniques. Soil samples were collected from each pedon at different soil profiles: 10 to15, 15 to 30, 30 to 70, 70 to 100 and 100 to 150 cm which were represented as L1, L2, L3, L4 and L5, respectively. Samples of the cassava mill effluent were also collected in five replicates. Standard laboratory methods were adopted for the analysis of both samples. It was observed from the results that cyanide distributed geospatially within the pedons. Furthermore, the results of the soil samples were subjected to correlation and regression analysis between Cn and other soil properties and the analysis showed highly positive significant variation (p = 0.05) in Na, Cd, pH, and clay in both pedons A and B while Pb, sand silt and porosity showed highly negative significance in both pedons. Most soil properties showed non significance in pedon C. High coefficients of regression for polynomial functions were recorded in most pedons. Key words: Soil properties, cassava-mill-effluent, pedons, regression models, distribution, correlation, cyanide, cassava.