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Heavy Metals in Soil: Source, Transformation, Transfer, Risk and Pollution Remediation

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Guest Editor
School of the Environment and Safety Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China
Interests: heavy metals; soil-crop-human system; geochemical process; pollution remediation

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Accumulation and contamination of heavy metals in soil have attracted worldwide concern because high concentrations of heavy metals in soil may induce deleterious effects on human health via multiple pathways, such as food chain, dermal contact and inhalation. For soil health management and sustainable land use, our understanding should be improved about quantitative source apportionment of heavy metals in soil, ecological and human health risk issues caused by metals in soil, transformation and transfer of metals, especially in soil–crop–human systems as well as remediation strategies of soil metal pollution with consideration of different metal elements and land use, which is also the aim of this Special Issue. In this Special Issue proposed by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health (IJERPH), the latest and high-quality original research articles, reviews and short communications on the field mentioned above are welcome.

Here, are some examples of topics that could be addressed in this Special Issue (but are not limited to):

  • New insights in source apportionment and impact of heavy metals in soil
  • Factors influencing biogeochemistry process of trace metals in soil-crop-human systems
  • Novel methodology or integrated approaches of ecological and human health risk assessment
  • Novel single or combined remediation methods of metal pollution in soil

Dr. Lanqin Yang
Guest Editor

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Keywords

  • heavy metals
  • soil
  • source apportionment
  • speciation transformation
  • bioavailability
  • bioaccessibility
  • risk
  • phytoremediation
  • metal immobilization

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Research

20 pages, 4915 KiB  
Article
Geochemical Characteristics of the Vertical Distribution of Heavy Metals in the Hummocky Peatlands of the Cryolithozone
by Roman Vasilevich, Mariya Vasilevich, Evgeny Lodygin and Evgeny Abakumov
Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2023, 20(5), 3847; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20053847 - 21 Feb 2023
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2336
Abstract
One of the main reservoirs depositing various classes of pollutants in high latitude regions are wetland ecosystems. Climate warming trends result in the degradation of permafrost in cryolitic peatlands, which exposes the hydrological network to risks of heavy metal (HM) ingress and its [...] Read more.
One of the main reservoirs depositing various classes of pollutants in high latitude regions are wetland ecosystems. Climate warming trends result in the degradation of permafrost in cryolitic peatlands, which exposes the hydrological network to risks of heavy metal (HM) ingress and its subsequent migration to the Arctic Ocean basin. The objectives included: (1) carrying out a quantitative analysis of the content of HMs and As across the profile of Histosols in background and technogenic landscapes of the Subarctic region, (2) evaluating the contribution of the anthropogenic impact to the accumulation of trace elements in the seasonally thawed layer (STL) of peat deposits, (3) discovering the effect of biogeochemical barriers on the vertical distribution of HMs and As. The analyses of elements were conducted by atom emission spectroscopy with inductively coupled plasma, atomic absorption spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy with an energy-dispersive X-ray detecting. The study focused on the characteristics of the layer-by-layer accumulation of HMs and As in hummocky peatlands of the extreme northern taiga. It revealed the upper level of microelement accumulation to be associated with the STL as a result of aerogenic pollution. Specifically composed spheroidal microparticles found in the upper layer of peat may serve as indicators of the area polluted by power plants. The accumulation of water-soluble forms of most of the pollutants studied on the upper boundary of the permafrost layer (PL) is explained by the high mobility of elements in an acidic environment. In the STL, humic acids act as a significant sorption geochemical barrier for elements with a high stability constant value. In the PL, the accumulation of pollutants is associated with their sorption on aluminum-iron complexes and interaction with the sulfide barrier. A significant contribution of biogenic element accumulation was shown by statistical analysis. Full article
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