Introduction to the thematic set: Progress in Remediation of Polluted Soils

Abstract

Lead Guest Editor: Jaume Bech Co-Guest Editors: Elena Korobova, M. Manuela Abreu, Carmen Perez-Sirvent, Hyo-Taek Chon and Nuria Roca The collection of papers presented in this Thematic Set is an outcome of the SSS8.4 Session ‘Progress in remediation for soils polluted by potentially toxic elements’, presented at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) Conference held in Vienna, April 2017. Soils are essential components of the environment, the basis of terrestrial ecosystems and a crossroad of biogeochemical cycles at the lithosphere-hydrosphere-biosphere-atmosphere interface. Soils are a limited and vulnerable resource and soil quality must be preserved. Anthropogenic mismanagement through poor industrial and mining practices, overuse of agrochemicals, bad disposal of sewage sludge and waste, cause contamination, environmental and health concerns. Therefore soil pollution needs innovative and eco-friendly technologies for its remediation. This Thematic Set contains 13 papers written by authors from 12 countries: Armenia, Italy, Japan, Jordan, Korea, Mexico, Mongolia, Philippines, Russian Federation, Spain, Thailand and USA. This collection of original studies focuses on five topics: 1) sequential extraction/speciation, 2) phytoremediation, 3) oxygen content in iron sulphides, 4) stabilization of Zn compounds in a long incubation experiment, and 5) bioavailability of potential toxic elements. ### Sequential extraction/speciation There are five papers dealing with this topic: Burachevskaya et al. studied the Zn fractional distribution in artificially contaminated Haplic Chernozem in South Russia, using the Miller and Tessier methods of sequential extraction. The authors concluded that the content of Zn in the fraction bound to the removed component obtained by the Tessier method area was lower than that obtained by the Miller method. Minkina et al. researched the Zn speciation in Technosols of the Karabash copper smelter, Southern Urals, Russia, using the combined fractionation scheme and a set of X-ray synchroton …