Abstract
The heavy metal pollution of soils has become serious environmental problem, mainly in localities with high industrialization and rapid growth. The purpose of this detailed research was to determine the actual status of heavy metal pollution of soils and an assessment of heavy metal pollution in a highly industrialized city, Ostrava, with a history of long-term impacts from the metallurgy industry and mining. The ecological risks to the area was subsequently also assessed. The heavy metals Cd, Hg, Cu, Mn, Pb, V, Zn, Cr and Fe were determined in top-soils (0–20 cm) using atomic absorption spectrometry (F AAS, GF AAS) from three areas with different anthropogenic loads. The obtained data expressed as mean metal concentrations were very varied among the sampled soils and values of all analyzed metal concentrations were higher than its background levels. To identify the ecological risk and assessment of soil pollution, various pollution indices were calculated, such as single pollution indices (Igeo, CF, EF, PI) and total complex indices (IPI, PLI, PINemerow, Cdeg, mCdeg, Er and PERI). The identification of pollution sources was assessed using Pearson’s correlation analysis and multivariate methods (HCA, PCA/FA). The obtained results confirmed three major groups of metals (Fe–Cr, Pb–Cu and Mn–V). A human health risk was identified in the case of Pb, Cd and Cr, and the HI value of V for children also exceeded 1.
Highlights
Metal-polluted soils have become a global and major environmental problem in many parts of the world
The extensive emissions of industrial dusts containing heavy metals originate from steel production processes and are the most important
The soils were divided in three classes (A: 1–10, B: 11–19 and C: 20–29) depending on pollution source distance
Summary
Metal-polluted soils have become a global and major environmental problem in many parts of the world. Many research studies are focused on monitoring heavy metal concentrations in soils, such as. Zn, Fe, Mn, Co, Ni, Pb, Cd, Cr, As and Hg, which very often have been extensively studied, mainly in urban, agricultural and industrial affected soils [1,2,3,4,5,6]. Heavy metals originating from anthropogenic activities are among the most common and oldest environmental contaminants. The high soil pollution by heavy metals results in enormous potential ecological risks in threatened areas with typical rapid urbanization, industrialization and
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