Factors of the accumulation of heavy metals and metalloids at geochemical barriers in urban soils

Abstract

The bulk contents and concentrations of mobile (extracted by an ammonium acetate buffer with EDTA) Cd, Pb, Sb, As, Bi, Zn, and Cu were determined in the surface horizons of urban soils in the Eastern administrative okrug of Moscow. The regression analysis showed that the accumulation of these metals and metalloids in the soils is controlled by the physicochemical soil properties and by number of anthropogenic factors and landscape conditions (geochemical position, type of loose deposits, character of land use, dust load, vehicle emissions, building pattern, percent of green areas, and the extent of sealed soils). The precipitation of studied elements on the geochemical barriers had the following regularities: Cd, Cu, and Zn accumulated on the alkaline barriers; Bi, Sb, As, Cu, Pb, and Zn, on chemisorption barriers; Sb, As, and Pb, on organomineral barriers; and Cd and Cu, on the sorption-sedimentation barriers. Technogenic transformation of the physicochemical properties of urban soils resulted in the increase of the mean bulk contents of heavy metals and metalloids by 33–99%; the portion of elements fixed on the geochemical barriers increased by 26–50%.