Correlation Estimation between Geochemical Metal-fraction and Soil Properties in Agricultural and Industrial Soils

Abstract

The Standards, Measurement and Testing Programme (SM&T-formerly BCR) extraction procedure was applied to fractionate Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn in 23 top soil samples into: (i) exchangeable phase; (ii) reducible phase; (iii) oxidisable(sulfides and organics bound) phase; and (iv) residual phase. Fractions of Cr and Ni were in the order of residual > oxidisable > reducible > exchangeable phase. The oxidisable phase was identified as dominant for Cu and Pb. Zn had the highest ratio of exchangeable phase in comparision to the other metals. The bioavailability and mobility were assessed to be the greatest for Zn, followed by a decreasing order of Pb, Cu, Ni and Cr. All metal average concentrations in topsoil samples was higher in industrial sites than in agricultural sites. Our results revealed higher concentrations in topsoil samples (0~15 cm) than in sub soils (15~30 cm, 30~60 cm) for most metals at six sites (No. 5, 6, 17, 19, 20, 23). The fractions of exchangeable, reducible ad oxidisable phases showed relatively high correlation with soil pH, Fe/Mn oxide concentrations and organic matter contents, respectively.