Assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area - before and after the end of mining activities
Toxicity and persistence of heavy metals, which are accumulated in the environment as the result of diverse industrial activities, represent serious environmental problem worldwide. The intense mineral extraction in mining areas has produced a large amount of waste material and tailings, which relea...
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
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Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences
2017-12-01
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Series: | Soil and Water Research |
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Online Access: | https://swr.agriculturejournals.cz/artkey/swr-201704-0006_assessment-of-soil-heavy-metal-pollution-in-a-former-mining-area-before-and-after-the-end-of-mining-activitie.php |
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author | Lenka Demková Tomáš Jezný Lenka Bobuľská |
author_facet | Lenka Demková Tomáš Jezný Lenka Bobuľská |
author_sort | Lenka Demková |
collection | DOAJ |
description | Toxicity and persistence of heavy metals, which are accumulated in the environment as the result of diverse industrial activities, represent serious environmental problem worldwide. The intense mineral extraction in mining areas has produced a large amount of waste material and tailings, which release toxic elements to the environment. The aim of the study was to determine in two time horizons (1997, 2015) the heavy metal contents of samples derived from ten sampling sites located in the former mining area of Central Spiš (Slovakia). In order to compare the level of contamination, the contamination factor (Cif), degree of contamination (Cd), and pollution load index (PLI) were computed. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used in order to detect the relationships among heavy metals. A serious situation was found for Hg, Zn, and Cd, which exceeded limit values at all sampling sites within both studied years. In 1997, the average values of contamination factor have shown very high contamination with all studied heavy metals, and moderate contamination with Co. In 2015, the study area was classified as very highly contaminated with As, Hg, Zn, Cu, considerably contaminated with Ni, Cr, Pb, and Cd, while Co contamination was not detected. Since 1997 till 2015 the pollution load index decreased by about 38%, nevertheless even then almost all sampling sites were classified as heavily polluted. Despite the fact that mining activities were stopped or limited at the beginning of the 21st century, the presence of heavy metals in soils remains at a serious level. The high level of contamination is a result of heavy metal persistence and non-biodegradability. |
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institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
issn | 1801-5395 1805-9384 |
language | English |
last_indexed | 2024-04-10T08:04:03Z |
publishDate | 2017-12-01 |
publisher | Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences |
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series | Soil and Water Research |
spelling | doaj.art-648f8ecff3674d6caa17175e5c7741fc2023-02-23T03:48:35ZengCzech Academy of Agricultural SciencesSoil and Water Research1801-53951805-93842017-12-0112422923610.17221/107/2016-SWRswr-201704-0006Assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area - before and after the end of mining activitiesLenka Demková0Tomáš Jezný1Lenka Bobuľská2Department of Ecology, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, University of Prešov, Prešov, Slovak RepublicDepartment of Environmental Engineering, Faculty of Civil Engineering, Technical University of Košice, Košice, Slovak RepublicDepartment of Ecology, Faculty of Humanities and Natural Sciences, University of Prešov, Prešov, Slovak RepublicToxicity and persistence of heavy metals, which are accumulated in the environment as the result of diverse industrial activities, represent serious environmental problem worldwide. The intense mineral extraction in mining areas has produced a large amount of waste material and tailings, which release toxic elements to the environment. The aim of the study was to determine in two time horizons (1997, 2015) the heavy metal contents of samples derived from ten sampling sites located in the former mining area of Central Spiš (Slovakia). In order to compare the level of contamination, the contamination factor (Cif), degree of contamination (Cd), and pollution load index (PLI) were computed. Spearman's correlation coefficient was used in order to detect the relationships among heavy metals. A serious situation was found for Hg, Zn, and Cd, which exceeded limit values at all sampling sites within both studied years. In 1997, the average values of contamination factor have shown very high contamination with all studied heavy metals, and moderate contamination with Co. In 2015, the study area was classified as very highly contaminated with As, Hg, Zn, Cu, considerably contaminated with Ni, Cr, Pb, and Cd, while Co contamination was not detected. Since 1997 till 2015 the pollution load index decreased by about 38%, nevertheless even then almost all sampling sites were classified as heavily polluted. Despite the fact that mining activities were stopped or limited at the beginning of the 21st century, the presence of heavy metals in soils remains at a serious level. The high level of contamination is a result of heavy metal persistence and non-biodegradability.https://swr.agriculturejournals.cz/artkey/swr-201704-0006_assessment-of-soil-heavy-metal-pollution-in-a-former-mining-area-before-and-after-the-end-of-mining-activitie.phpcontamination factordegree of contaminationpollution indexsoil toxicity |
spellingShingle | Lenka Demková Tomáš Jezný Lenka Bobuľská Assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area - before and after the end of mining activities Soil and Water Research contamination factor degree of contamination pollution index soil toxicity |
title | Assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area - before and after the end of mining activities |
title_full | Assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area - before and after the end of mining activities |
title_fullStr | Assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area - before and after the end of mining activities |
title_full_unstemmed | Assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area - before and after the end of mining activities |
title_short | Assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area - before and after the end of mining activities |
title_sort | assessment of soil heavy metal pollution in a former mining area before and after the end of mining activities |
topic | contamination factor degree of contamination pollution index soil toxicity |
url | https://swr.agriculturejournals.cz/artkey/swr-201704-0006_assessment-of-soil-heavy-metal-pollution-in-a-former-mining-area-before-and-after-the-end-of-mining-activitie.php |
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