Dergiler / EURASIAN JOURNAL OF SOIL SCIENCE / 2019 / Cilt: 8 - Sayı: 3

Determination of heavy metal risk and their enrichment factor in intensive cultivated soils of Tokat Province

Determination of heavy metal risk and their enrichment factor in intensive cultivated soils of Tokat Province

Betül Bayraklı, Orhan Dengiz

Sayfa
249–256
DOI
—

Abstract

Heavy metal contamination has caused serious environmental and health-relatedproblems around the world. This research was conducted in arable lands of some basinslocated on Tokat province. The aim of this present study was to determine I-) somephysico-chemical properties of soils, ii-) to find heavy metal (HM) content and theirenrichment factor (EF) and iii-) to detect relationship between some physico-chemicalproperties and HM concentration. To identify the concentrations and sources of heavymetals, 280 soil samples (0-20 cm) were collected from the study area. Subsequently, inorder to evaluate natural or anthropogenic sources of heavy metal content and their EF inagricultural fields, the concentrations of some HMs (Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb and Zn) andsome physico-chemical properties of soil samples were analyzed. The results showed thatmostly the concentration of Ni followed by Cr exceeded their threshold levels. The localpollutions from Ni and Cr were attributed to the natural influences (particularly due toparent material). The concentrations of the other HMs are relatively lower than the criticalvalues. The mean values of the HMs contents arranged in the following decreasing order:Ni>Cr>Cu>Zn>Co>Pb>Cd in the studied soil sample. In addition, it was found significantlypositive relation between Pb and OM while the same relation was also found clay contentand Cd and Pb. On the other hand, according to EF of HMs in total soil samples, Cd, Ni andCr have found 16%, 10% and 6% soil samples as moderate enrichment class, whereas55% and 1% of the total soil samples were determined significant enrichment class interms of Cd and Ni elements. Besides, all other HM elements did not exceed minimalenrichment level. However, in some regions of the study area, the Cu, Cd and Pb contentswere also slightly raised, this case possibly stems from anthropogenic effects such asexcessive P fertilization, field traffic and pesticide using.