US EPA

6724362 

Journal Article 

Distribution and plant availability of Cd, Pb, Cu and As in different particle size soil fractions 

Banerjee, US; Guo, Z; Zhou, K; Chai, LiY; , 

2017 

Yes 

Journal of the Indian Chemical Society
ISSN: 0019-4522 

SCIENTIFIC PUBL-INDIA 

JODHPUR 

94 

9 

1029-1035 

WOS:000413500600009 

The present study was conducted to evaluate the distribution and plant availability of Cd, Pb, Cu and As in different particle-size soil fractions. The distribution of total heavy metals and their plant availability were investigated in a metal mining area in the Hunan Province, China. Soils were partitioned into five particle-size fractions : coarse sand (> 500 mu m), medium sand (125-500 mu m), fine sand (50-125 mu m), silt (2-50 mu m) and clay (<2 mu m). The most dominant elements in all size fractions at all sites are Pb and Cu followed by Cd and As. The concentration of heavy metals and metalloid in the studied soils ranged between 718-936 mg/kg : Pb, 9.625-28.352 mg/kg : Cd, 92-142 mg/kg : Cu and 42.882-74.862 mg/kg : As. Concentrations of plant available Pb (42.964-141.968 mg/kg), Cd (2.846-11.273 mg/kg), Cu (15.92-21.857 mg/kg) and As (6.954-9.251 mg/kg) in the soils were higher in the clay fraction (<2 mu m). According to risk assessment code (RAC) value the studied soil revealed the following sequence : Cd>Pb > Cu> As. Cd showed a high environmental risk with the RAC value for the clay (18.216-39.761%) and silt (18.904-36.181%) of the studied soil could be considered to be dangerous to surrounding soil ecosystem. The study reflected the relative importance of the particle size fractions with respect to their contribution to metal availability. The study also revealed that the Cd, Pb, Cu and As were characteristically enriched in the fine clay particles due to higher surface area and the compositional characteristics of the fine particles. 

Heavy metal; metalloid; plant-availability; contaminated soil; particle-size soil fraction; RAC