Sources, lability and solubility of Pb in alluvial soils of the River Trent catchment, U.K.

Abstract

Alluvial soils are reservoirs of metal contaminants such as Pb that originate from many different sources and are integrated temporally and spatially through erosional and depositional processes. In this study the source, lability and solubility of Pb were examined in a range of alluvial soils from the middle and lower River Trent and its tributary the River Dove using Pb isotope apportionment and isotopic dilution. All samples were collected within 10m of the river bank to represent the soil that is most likely to be remobilised during bank erosion. Paired samples were taken from the topsoil (0–15cm) and subsoil (35–50cm) to assess differences with depth. Lead concentrations in soil ranged from 43 to 1282mg/kg. The lability of soil Pb varied between 9 and 56% of total metal concentration whilst Pb concentrations in pore water varied between 0.2 and 6.5μg/L. There was little difference in the % Pb lability between paired top and sub soils, possibly because soil characteristics such as pH, iron oxides and clay content were generally similar; a result of the recycling of eroded and deposited soils within the river system. Soil pH was found to be negatively correlated with % Pb lability. Source apportionment using 206Pb/207Pb and 208Pb/207Pb ratios showed that the isotopic ratios of Pb in the total, labile and solution pools fitted along a mixing line between Broken Hill Type (‘BHT’) Pb, used as an additive in UK petrol, and the local coal/Southern Pennine ore Pb. Various anomalies were found in the Pb isotopes of the bankside alluvial soils which were explained by point source pollution. Statistically significant differences were found between (i) the isotopic composition of Pb in the total soil pool and the labile/solution pools and (ii) the isotopic composition of Pb in the labile and solution pools, suggesting an enrichment of recent non-Pennine sources of Pb entering the soils in the labile and solution pools.