Effect of widespread severely acidic soils on spatial features and abundance of trace elements in streams

Abstract

In the coastal area of western Finland, a large number of streams are strongly acidic and contaminated with metals. The reason for this is not historical and present industrial, mining and urban activities, but a current high rate of weathering and leaching of widespread acid sulphate soils (pH 2.5–4.0) developed in artificially drained Holocene marine and lacustrine sulphide-bearing sediments. Evaluation of existing hydro- and geochemical field and experimental data revealed that: (1) cobalt, Ni and Zn are extensively leached from the acid sulphate soils and thus exist abundantly in streams affected by such soils, (2) copper and Tl are also leached abundantly from the acid sulphate soils, although not to the same extent as are Co, Ni and Zn, (3) vanadium is in general depleted and Cr only weakly enriched in streams draining ‘the average acid sulphate soil’, but they increase substantially in severely acidic streams in catchments underlain with particularly acidic soil, (4) arsenic and Pb are not leached more abundantly from the acid sulphate soils than from the common types of soils and sediments (till, glaciofluvial deposits, peat) resulting in aquatic abundance and distribution patterns unrelated to the acid sulphate soil occurrences.