Urban soil geochemistry in Athens, Greece: The importance of local geology in controlling the distribution of potentially harmful trace elements

Argyraki, Ariadne; Kelepertzis, Efstratios

doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2014.02.133

Cited by 133 publications

(56 citation statements)

References 53 publications

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“…The selected soil samples exhibited a wide range in clay (10%-27%), silt (15%-58%) and sand (25%-75%) content. A wide range in soil metal concentrations was also observed (Table 1); the large variability in elemental concentration levels has been attributed to both natural and anthropogenic sources of enrichment based on the results of the previous systematic geochemical survey in Athens soil [24]. Median values of the studied elements follow the decreasing order of Fe > Mn > Zn > Pb > Ni > Cr > Cu > Co > Sb > Ag > Au > Hg.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 79%

“…The complete results of the chemical analyses are provided in the Supplementary Material. The pH of soil samples averaged 8.32 reflecting the alkaline nature of Athens soil [24]. Total organic carbon content was low, varying between 0.6% and 4.49%, with an average concentration of 2.15%.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Forty-five composite soil samples (0-10 cm depth) were selected from the sample database of an earlier systematic soil geochemical survey [24]. The criteria for sample selection were the total content of metals (not including Hg) as determined by a strong acid mixture dissolution and the spatial variability of soil chemical composition.…”

Section: Soil Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Apart from these cases, Hg soil determinations in the urban environment are not available for any Greek cities. A recent comprehensive systematic survey that was conducted in the Greater Athens and Piraeus area focused on concentration levels and the discrimination of contamination sources for a considerable suite of potentially toxic metals and metalloids [24]. Despite the environmental significance of Hg, its loadings were not assessed in that study.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mercury in the Urban Topsoil of Athens, Greece

Kelepertzis

Argyraki

2015

Sustainability

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Abstract:The present study documents the Hg content in 45 urban topsoil samples from the highly urbanized city of Athens, Greece. The Hg concentrations were quantified by applying aqua regia digestion on the <100 μm soil fraction followed by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) with a detection limit of 5 μg·kg , which is the maximum concentration value expected to be present in normal uncontaminated soils. Results obtained by multivariate principal component and hierarchical cluster analysis incorporating a large suite of chemical elements were notably effective for elucidating the anthropogenic origin of Hg in the studied soil. The elevated concentrations are most likely related to site-specific point source contamination rather than to the widely documented influences from the vehicular traffic emissions in urban settings. Given the proximity of urban population to the contaminated urban soils, we suggest the implementation of different soil extraction tests with the aim to evaluate the fraction of soil Hg available for absorption by the human body.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 79%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Soil Samplingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Mercury in the Urban Topsoil of Athens, Greece

Kelepertzis

Argyraki

2015

Sustainability

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“…Road networks and industrial plants are the two main sources of heavy metal emissions in urbanized and peri-urban areas Dayani and Mohammadi 2010;Wong et al 2006). Previous studies have shown that population density, traffic volume, industrialized land use, and timing of urbanization are positively correlated with metal concentrations in surrounding soils (Argyraki and Kelepertzis 2014;Guney Responsible editor: Philippe Garrigues Summary We investigated the spatial and vertical distribution of heavy metals in soil in the Shanghai water supply area to determine the sources of contamination and the impacts of urbanization.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of urbanization on the distribution of heavy metals in soils along the Huangpu River, the drinking water source for Shanghai

Bai

Wang

Peng

et al. 2015

Environ Sci Pollut Res

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We investigated the horizontal and vertical distribution of heavy metals (Hg, Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, As, Ni, and Cr) in soils in the water source protection zone for Shanghai to study the origins of these metals, their connections with urbanization, and their potential risk posed on the ecosystem. Determination of metal concentrations in 50 topsoil samples and nine soil profiles indicated that Hg, Pb, Zn, and Cu were present in significantly higher concentrations in topsoil than in deep soil layers. The spatial distributions of Hg, Pb, Zn, and Cu and contamination hotspots for these metals in the study area were similar to those near heavy industries and urban built-up areas. Emissions from automobiles resulted in increased soil concentrations of Cu, Pb, and Zn along roadsides, while high concentrations of Hg in the soil resulted from recent atmospheric deposition. Calculation of the potential ecological risk indicated that the integrative risk of these heavy metals in most areas was low, but a few sites surrounding high density of factories showed moderate risks.

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