Abstract
Inorganic contaminants, including potentially toxic metals (PTMs), originating from un-reclaimed abandoned mine areas may accumulate in soils and present significant distress to environmental and public health. The ability to generate realistic spatial distribution models of such contamination is important for risk assessment and remedial planning of sites where this has occurred. This study evaluated the prediction accuracy of optimized ordinary kriging compared to spatial regression-informed cokriging for PTMs (Zn, Mn, Cu, Pb, and Cd) in soils near abandoned mines in Bumpus Cove, Tennessee, USA. Cokriging variables and neighborhood sizes were systematically selected from prior statistical analyses based on the association with PTM transport and soil physico-chemical properties (soil texture, moisture content, bulk density, pH, cation exchange capacity (CEC), and total organic carbon (TOC)). A log transform was applied to fit the frequency histograms to a normal distribution. Superior models were chosen based on six diagnostics (ME, RMS, MES, RMSS, ASE, and ASE-RMS), which produced mixed results. Cokriging models were preferred for Mn, Zn, Cu, and Cd, whereas ordinary kriging yielded better model results for Pb. This study determined that the preliminary process of developing spatial regression models, thus enabling the selection of contributing soil properties, can improve the interpolation accuracy of PTMs in abandoned mine sites.
Highlights
Mining industry contamination is a major environmental problem and may arise in soils as a result of associated blasting, transportation, ore extraction, and materials processing, and the adverse effects may be exacerbated by associated deforestation [1]
The neutral pH values run parallel to the fold axis of the Shady Dolomite formation
For four metals (Mn, Zn, Cu, and Cd), the cokriging models were superior to the kriging models, and it appears that the development of spatial regression models was a worthwhile preliminary step
Summary
Mining industry contamination is a major environmental problem and may arise in soils as a result of associated blasting, transportation, ore extraction, and materials processing, and the adverse effects may be exacerbated by associated deforestation [1]. Perhaps most notably, mining activities discharge potentially toxic metals (PTMs) into the environment. Natural manifestations of toxic metals in soils are significantly related to the intricate transport of metalliferous parent bedrock and accumulate in soil by means of geochemical weathering and/or pollutants from atmospheric deposition [3,4]. Unlike the majority of pollutants from organic origin, metals do not biodegrade and may disrupt the environment by accumulating in biological organisms and/or are biologically transformed into organic complexes [5,6]. Such activity increases toxicity and potential for remobilization and may directly endanger human health, agriculture, and ecotoxicology [6,7]
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