Heavy metals assessment and identification of their sources in agricultural soils of Southern Tehran, Iran

Abstract

A detailed investigation was conducted to evaluate heavy metal sources and their spatial distribution in agricultural fields in the south of Tehran using statistics, geostatistics, and a geographic information system. The content of Cd, Cu, Co, Pb, Zn, Cr, and Ni were determined in 106 samples. The results showed that the primary inputs of Cr, Co, and Ni were due to pedogenic factors, while the inputs of Zn, Pb, and Cu were due to anthropogenic sources. Cd was associated with distinct sources, such as agricultural and industrial pollution. Ordinary kriging was carried out to map the spatial patterns of heavy metals, and disjunctive kriging was used to quantify the probability of heavy metal concentrations higher than their recommended threshold values. The results show that Cd, Cu, Ni, and Zn exhibit pollution risk in the study area. The sources of the high pollution levels evaluated were related to the use of urban and industrial wastewater and agricultural practices. These results are useful for the development of proper management strategies for remediation practices in the polluted area.

Concentrations of Heavy Metals in Suburban Horticultural Soils and Their Uptake by Artemisia selengensis

“…The metals in PC 1 were mainly derived from non-anthropogenic sources, indicating local natural sources. The most important sources of Cd in the arable soils of suburban areas are the long-term application of fertilizers, sewage sludges, and organic manures (Zhang, 2006;Hani and Pazira, 2011). Cr and Ni in PC 2 were strongly correlated with each other and were clearly separated from the other heavy metals regarding their correlation coefficient analysis and PCA.…”

“…The main sources of heavy metals may include various anthropogenic activities such as industry, mining, atmospheric deposition, excessive application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and sewage and wastewater irrigation (Wilson and Pyatt, 2007;Khan et al, 2008;Wang et al, 2013). Heavy metals can enter plant tissues by uptake from contaminated soils, wastewater irrigation and atmospheric deposition (Huang et al, 2007;Sridhara Chary et al, 2008;Hani and Pazira, 2011;Wang et al, 2013).…”

Phytoremediation of Heavy Metals: The Use of Green Approaches to Clean the Environment

“…In this process plants uptake the contaminants by roots and accumulate in the aerial parts or shoots of (Bissen and Frimmel 2003 ;Walsh et al 1979 ) 2 Cu Timber treatment, fertilizers, fungicides, electroplating industry, smelting and refi ning, mining, biosolids (Liu et al 2005 ) 3 Cd Anthropogenic activities, smelting and refi ning, fossil fuel burning, application of phosphate fertilizers, sewage sludge (Alloway 1995 ;Kabata-Pendias 2001 ) 4 Pb Batteries, metal products, mining and smelting of metalliferous ores, burning of leaded gasoline, municipal sewage, industrial wastes enriched in Pb, paints (Gisbert et al 2003 ;Seaward and Richardson 1990 ) 5 Cr Timber treatment, leather tanning, pesticides and dyes, electroplating industry (Knox et al 1999 ;Gowd et al 2010 ) 6 Hg Fumigants and fertilizers, volcano eruptions, forest fi re, emissions from industries producing caustic soda, coal, peat, and wood burning (Lindqvist 1991 ) 7 Zn Dyes, paints, timber treatment, fertilizers and mine tailings, electroplating industry, smelting and refi ning, mining (Liu et al 2005 ) 8 Ni Alloys, batteries and mine tailings, volcanic eruptions, land fi ll, forest fi re, bubble bursting, and gas exchange in ocean (Knox et al 1999 ) 9 Cd, Pb, and As Over application of fertilizers and pesticides (Atafar et al 2010 ) 10 Pb Commercial organic fertilizer (Wang et al 2013 ) 11 Cd, Cu, Ni, and Zn Urban and industrial wastewater used in agricultural practices (Hani and Pazira 2011 ) the plant and fi nally it is harvested and disposed of (Vishnoi and Srivastava 2007 ). The plant-based remediation technology is one of the largest technologies to remediate the heavy metal pollution from the environment (Raskin et al 1997 ).…”

Multivariate Mapping of Heavy Metals Spatial Contamination in a Cu–Ni Exploration Field (Botswana) Using Turning Bands Co-simulation Algorithm

“…Statistical (Hani and Pazira 2011) and geochemical methods including enrichment factor (Anderson and Kravitz 2010), sequential extractions (Zimmerman and Weindorf 2010), geochemical relationships (Bourennane et al 2010) and geochemical mapping (Reimann and de Caritat 2005), among other methods, have been used for the assessment of heavy metal contamination in soils. Since these methods are based on assumptions of reference values for natural contents, there is always considerable range and discrepancies in the assessed soil contamination results from single application of each and every one of the methods.…”