Chemical properties and toxicity of soils contaminated by mining activity

Abstract

This research is aimed at assessing the total content and soluble forms of metals (zinc, lead and cadmium) and toxicity of soils subjected to strong human pressure associated with mining of zinc and lead ores. The research area lay in the neighbourhood of the Bolesław Mine and Metallurgical Plant in Bukowno (Poland). The study obtained total cadmium concentration between 0.29 and 51.91 mg, zinc between 7.90 and 3,614 mg, and that of lead between 28.4 and 6844 mg kg−1 of soil d.m. The solubility of the heavy metals in 1 mol dm−3 NH4NO3 was 1–49 % for zinc, 5–45 % for cadmium, and <1–10 % for lead. In 1 mol HCl dm−3, the solubility of the studied metals was much higher and obtained values depending on the collection site, from 45 to 92 % for zinc, from 74 to 99 %, and from 79 to 99 % for lead. The lower solubility of the heavy metals in 1 mol dm−3 NH4NO3 than 1 mol HCl dm−3 is connected with that, the ammonium nitrate has low extraction power, and it is used in determining the bioavailable (active) form of heavy metals. Toxicity assessment of the soil samples was performed using two tests, Phytotoxkit and Microtox®. Germination index values were between 22 and 75 % for Sinapis alba, between 28 and 100 % for Lepidium sativum, and between 10 and 28 % for Sorghum saccharatum. Depending on the studied soil sample, Vibrio fischeri luminescence inhibition was 20–96 %. The sensitivity of the test organisms formed the following series: S. saccharatum > S. alba = V. fischeri > L. sativum. Significant positive correlations (p ≤ 0.05) of the total and soluble contents of the metals with luminescence inhibition in V. fischeri and root growth inhibition in S. saccharatum were found. The general trend observed was an increase in metal toxicity measured by the biotest with increasing available metal contents in soils. All the soil samples were classified into toxicity class III, which means that they are toxic and present severe danger. Biotest are a good complement to chemical analyses in the assessment of quality of soils as well as in properly managing them.

Cadmium Bioavailability, Uptake, Toxicity and Detoxification in Soil-Plant System

“…Relative to natural processes such as volcanic activity and the weathering of rocks, anthropogenic activities such as mining, combustion of fossil fuels, metal production and other industrial and agricultural practices have been responsible for the increased Cd levels in the environment (Choppala et al 2014;Agnieszka et al 2014;Zhao et al 2015). Industrial emission, animal manures, sewage sludge and phosphate fertilizers are reported to have increased Cd concentrations in agricultural soils (Rao and Kashifuddin 2012).…”

Assessment of phytotoxicity of leachates from landfilled waste and dust from foundry

“…EAFD can be reused in the production of castings and in metallurgy or for the production of Portland cement (Škvára et al 2002;Mymrin et al 2016). The EAFD can also be solidified with lime and concrete, in order to reduce the leachability of heavy metals, and landfilled (Andrés et al 1995;Hamilton and Sammes 1999). The composition of dust from the regeneration unit depends mainly on the type of molding sand and binder.…”

“…The advantage of this species is the availability of seeds, rapid growth, sensitivity to environmental factors, including heavy metals, and low humidity requirements. Lepidium sativum is a recommended plant in many standards for biotoxicity test (Baumgarten and Spiegel 2004) and is used by many authors (Hoekstra et al 2002;Fuentes et al 2004, Barrientos et al 2012Baran et al 2014;Visioli et al 2014; Baran and Tarnawski 2015;Wierzbicka et al 2015;Praveen et al 2017;Khan et al 2018;Mañas and De las Heras 2018;Seneviratne et al 2019).…”

Geochemistry and environmental threats of soils surrounding an abandoned mercury mine

“…More recently, it was concluded that chemical extractions of metals from multi-contaminated soils did not provide enough information about their bioavailable fractions (Alexander 2000;Ehlers and Luthy 2003;Semple et al 2004;Harmsen 2007) and were not able to reflect the toxicity of all substances in soil, their synergic and antagonistic effects and their interactions with the soil matrix and organisms (Gruiz 2005). In this context, th e application of batteries of terrestrial ecotoxicity tests gained special relevance as complementary, inexpensive, simple and quick tools able to report realistic and nonoverestimated effects of contaminated sites to soil organisms (Leitgib et al 2007;Alvarenga et al 2008;Maisto et al 2011;Alvarenga et al 2012;Agnieszka et al 2014;Bes et al 2014;. At the same time, aquatic bioassays traditionally applied for the toxicity determination of aquatic pollutants (Lopez-Roldan et al 2012), industrial effluents (Riva et al 1993;Riva and Valles 1994;Riva et al 2007) or extracts of sediments (Pereira-Miranda et al 2011) were incorporated to assess the impacts of soil composition and runoffs on receiving waters (Loureiro et al 2005a;Rocha et al 2011).…”