Abstract
The aim of the study was to determine concentrations of some trace elements (lead, cadmium, chromium, and nickel) in soils along State Road 51 leading from Olsztyn to Olsztynek, northeastern Poland. The traffic flow had a significant effect on the content of heavy metals in soils lying along the road. Further away from the road, and under a lower traffic flow intensity, the amounts of contaminants originating from the motor traffic decreased. There was a pine forest growing by the road near Olsztyn, which served as a buffer zone for all the analyzed heavy metals. At all the sampling locations, the content of chromium was approximately the same as its natural concentration. The statistical analysis demonstrated that there was a strong negative correlation between the concentrations of nickel, lead, chromium, and cadmium in soils and the distance from the road. The biggest differences in the content of an individual element were determined for lead and the smallest ones—for cadmium. Emissions of trace elements depended on the differences in the traffic flow intensity, number, type, and speed of vehicles and on the atmospheric conditions as well as the distribution of buildings.
Highlights
Soil is one of the most valuable nonrenewable resources, which—at the same time—remains among the most severely threatened elements of the natural environment (Massas et al 2013)
The above considerations encouraged this research, whose aim was to determine concentrations of some trace elements in soils along State Road 51 leading from Olsztyn to Olsztynek, northeastern Poland
The traffic flow had a significant effect on the content of heavy metals in soils lying along the road
Summary
Soil is one of the most valuable nonrenewable resources, which—at the same time—remains among the most severely threatened elements of the natural environment (Massas et al 2013). Higher emissions of heavy metals to the atmospheric air mean that heavy metals settle on roadside plants, possibly leading to their elevated concentrations This is threatening because plants growing on soil contaminated with trace elements accumulate large amounts of these constituents (Wyszkowski and Wyszkowska 2012; Wyszkowski and Radziemska 2013), which through the feeding chain, can enter into animal bodies and reach people's organisms, posing a health hazard (Coskun et al 2006; Singh and Kumar 2006; Sagi and Yigit 2012; Guala et al 2013). The mobility of elements is affected by the type of parent rock, the industrial and agricultural activities carried out in the environs (Zhang et al 2009), type of soil, pH, soil sorption capacity, content of organic matter, and type of metal (Antoniadis and McKinley 2003; Ciećko et al 2004, 2005, 2006; Guala et al 2013), with the trace elements which originate from the parent rock demonstrating lower mobility than the same elements imported to soil from anthropogenic sources (Wilson and Bell 1996)
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