REE concentrations in agricultural soil in Sweden and Italy: Comparison of weak MMI® extraction with near total extraction data

Abstract

Rare Earth Element (REE) concentrations in agricultural soil obtained from the Mobile Metal Ion (MMI®) weak extraction technique are compared with soil total concentrations (sodium peroxide fusion followed by acid dissolution) for 118 and 174 agricultural soil samples from Italy and Sweden, respectively. Spatial distribution maps and statistics for both analytical techniques are compared between the two national datasets. In spite of similarity of REE concentration in two countries, the median values of REE is higher than Italy but extreme concentration of REE in Italy is due to young volcanic activities. Extractability of REEs is significantly higher in Swedish soils than in Italian soils. Heavy Rare Earth Element (HREE) in Sweden show higher concentrations compared to Italy in MMI® extraction data where correlate with REE mineralisation. Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to elucidate correlations and anomalies in the REE distribution. Results show that there is a clear correlation between REE anomalies and natural factors such as lithology of the underlying bedrock, the presence of mineralisations, pH of soils, climate and precipitation. According to the PCA results, anomalous behaviour of Eu, Ce, Tb and Gd can be explained by the dominant mineralogy of the parent material and the variable affinity of REEs to bind to clay minerals and clay-size particles.