Assessment of the Impact of a Motorway on Content andSpatial Distribution of Mercury in Adjacent Agricultural Soils

Abstract

The distribution of Hg in the vicinity of roads is probably not exclusively dependent on car emissions, but also on the presence of other point or diffuse sources of Hg emissions located from metres to several km away. The source of mercury in urbanised areas is pollution derived from the burning of fuels and industrial and transport waste, while in agricultural areas, it is constituent in mineral fertilisers and crop protection products. The research objective was to evaluate the content and spatial distribution of mercury in arable soils adjacent to the A1 motorway in Poland. The research material consisted of 40 soil samples taken from 20 test points on four transects at distances of 5, 10, 25 and 50 m from a noise barrier and in the direction of an arable field, and 10 m from the noise barrier in the direction of the motorway. Total mercury content was determined by atomic absorption spectrometry using an AMA 254 analyser. The spatial relationship between adjacent observations of variables was assessed using Moran’s I overall autocorrelation coefficient. Probability maps of mercury distribution in the field and pollution indicators were elaborated in ArcGIS 10.4.1. using Inverse Distance Weighted interpolation. Analysis of the spatial correlation of Moran’s I showed a lack of spatial dependence between tested points, which may evidence that the motorway does not affect mercury contents in the soil. The elevated mercury content at a single test point may indicate a random event unrelated to the motorway’s operation.

The Mercury Content in the Upper Layers of Soils in the Selected Area of the Masovian Landscape Park

“…At the same time, the found positive correlation between the content of organic matter and the content of Hg indicates that this factor may also significantly affect the content of this element in soils. Both Gworek et al [20] examining the impact of road traffic in the vicinity of Warsaw on the mercury content in soils and plants, as well as Jaworska and Klimek [27] conducting research in the vicinity of the A1 motorway along the international E75 route, confirm the influence of soil texture on the content of this element in soil. It follows from these studies that the concentration of Hg in soils tends to increase with the decrease in grain size, which is caused by the tendency of this element to bind to finer particles.…”

“…Similar results were also obtained by Gruba et al [26] in soils under pine and fir stands located near the S7 expressway between the cities of Skarzysko-Kamienna and Kielce, central Poland (average 0.225 mg•kg −1 ). Lower mercury contents, ranging from 0.013 to 0.041 mg•kg −1 , were determined by Jaworska and Klimek [27] in surface layers of soils collected in the vicinity of the A1 motorway, along the international E75 route, central Poland. Much higher contents, ranging from 2.26 to 3.68 mg•kg −1 , were determined in studies conducted on canola soils along the Zagazig-Ismailia highway in Egypt [21], which the author explains with a high content of organic matter in the investigated arable soils.…”

Index of contamination/pollution factor, geo-accumulation and ecological risk in ex-gold mining soil contaminated with mercury

“…By dividing Hg in soil by the limit value, Cf/Pf (F.1) (Lacatusu, 2000) and I-geo (F.2) (Abdullah et al, 2020;Jaworska and Klimek, 2021;Gonçalves et al, 2022) was calculated as follows:…”