Abstract
This study focuses on soil pollution in four urban parks of Belgrade. The sampling locations within each park were chosen based on proximity to streets characterized by heavy traffic, and soil samples were taken at different depths down to 50 cm. Concentrations of six heavy metals (Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni and Zn) were measured using Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometer. The following average abundance order of heavy metals was found: Fe >> Mn > Zn > Cr > Ni > Cu in topsoil samples. The highest enrichment in topsoil was observed for Zn. Copper and Zn, metals mainly related to traffic emissions, exhibited the highest concentrations at the sampling location close to a bus and trolleybus terminus. The highest Ni and Cr concentrations were observed in a park located in a city suburb, where a large number of individual heating units is present. The largest decrease in concentrations with soil dept was observed for Zn and Cu, followed by Ni and Cr, in the parks with the highest concentrations of these elements in topsoil. Generally high topsoil Cr and Ni concentrations were observed in comparison with average values reported in literature for other world cities.
Highlights
This study focuses on soil pollution in four urban parks of Belgrade
We performed the analysis of heavy metal content of urban soil in four Belgrade parks: Karađorđev Park (KP), Studentski Park (SP), Zemun Park (ZP) and Botanical Garden (BG)
The analysis of the samples was carried out using the Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometry
Summary
This study focuses on soil pollution in four urban parks of Belgrade. Humans can be exposed to heavy metals in soil more directly through inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact absorption [8] This is of particular concern in urban environment, as urban soil can be disturbed and re-suspended due to dense population and heavy traffic activities. The objective of this study is to estimate the heavy metal content of soil samples taken at different depths down to 50 cm from four parks in urban part of Belgrade. Elemental content of topsoil in Belgrade urban area (including city parks), using another analytical method – atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS), has been reported in earlier studies [10,11]. In the present study total elemental content of heavy metals in soil in Belgrade urban parks was determined using an Energy Dispersive X-Ray Fluorescence (EDXRF) spectrometer. It covers the area of over 3000 km, and has a population of about two
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