Relationship between soil properties and potentially toxic element content based on the dataset of the Soil Information and Monitoring System in Hungary

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between soil properties and potentially toxic element contents of arable soils based on the dataset of the Soil Information and Monitoring System in Hungary. Nine potentially toxic elements (As, B, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn) were compared with selected soil parameters. We carried out grouping of related soil properties by principal component analysis. The method was suitable to describe the relationship within groups of the soil properties. We studied correlations of the resulting components and potentially toxic elements. The change of Ni content was influenced by the physical properties of the soil (e.g. clay content, field capacity, R = 0.67). Boron is the only one of the examined elements that indicates significant positive correlation with saline-alkali (R = 0.21) parameters. Zn, Co and Cr behaved very similarly; their correlation with components 1 and 2 were the closest.