Abstract
A healthy soil is a healthy ecosystem because humans, animals, plants, and water highly depend upon it. Soil pollution by potentially toxic elements (PTEs) is a serious concern for humankind. The study is aimed at (i) assessing the concentrations of PTEs in soils under a long-term heavily industrialized region for coal and textiles, (ii) modeling and mapping the spatial and vertical distributions of PTEs using a GIS-based ordinary kriging technique, and (iii) identifying the possible sources of these PTEs in the Jizerské Mountains (Jizera Mts.) using a positive matrix factorization (PMF) model. Four hundred and forty-two (442) soil samples were analyzed by applying the aqua regia method. To assess the PTE contents, the level of pollution, and the distribution pattern in soil, the contamination factor (CF) and the pollution load index load (PLI) were applied. ArcGIS-based ordinary kriging interpolation was used for the spatial analysis of PTEs. The results of the analysis revealed that the variation in the coefficient (CV) of PTEs in the organic soil was highest in Cr (96.36%), followed by Cu (54.94%) and Pb (49.40%). On the other hand, the mineral soil had Cu (96.88%), Cr (66.70%), and Pb (64.48%) as the highest in CV. The PTEs in both the organic soil and the mineral soil revealed a high heterogeneous variability. Though the study area lies within the “Black Triangle”, which is a historic industrial site in Central Europe, this result did not show a substantial influence of the contamination of PTEs in the area. In spite of the rate of pollution in this area being very low based on the findings, there may be a need for intermittent assessment of the soil. This helps to curtail any excessive accumulation and escalation in future. The results may serve as baseline information for pollution assessment. It might support policy-developers in sustainable farming and forestry for the health of an ecosystem towards food security, forest safety, as well as animal and human welfare.
Highlights
The Coef of Var. (CV) of the potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in the organic soil increased in the following order: Fe < Pb < Cu < Cr < Mn, accounting for 46.31%, 49.40%, 54.94%, 96.36%, and 97.06%, respectively
Chromium showed a strong relationship to other elements investigated, while Pb has a significant and strong positive relation with Cu
This was probably because Cr is mobilized in acidic soils and our study area is highly acidic
Summary
Soil is an indispensable component of an ecosystem that directly or indirectly links and maintains the Earth’s four spheres (namely the lithosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere). This essential potential of soil has, in recent times, been threatened by heavy metals or potentially toxic elements (PTEs). The chemistry of soil makes it vulnerable to high concentrations of heavy metals or PTEs. At a required concentration, most PTEs such as Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Zn, Ni, Mo, Co, Se, and others are essential for plants, animals, or humans [1,2]. The presence of PTEs in soil has been attracting reasonable attention because of their ecological and biological risks. Several studies in different biomes have been performed to identify the sources of PTEs in the soils [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16]
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