ACCUMULATION OF HEAVY METALS IN THE SOILS OF THE SVERDLOVSK REGION

Abstract

The relevance of the study is dictated by the need for constant environmental monitoring of environmental objects in the Sverdlovsk region, in particular, soils due to the high level of anthropogenic load on the territory. The purpose of the work is to assess the degree of contamination of residential landscapes and agricultural lands in the Sverdlovsk region with heavy metals by determining the concentration of gross forms of heavy metals and calculating quantitative criteria for contamination with heavy metals. Objects: soil samples from several points of the Sverdlovsk region, representing urbanized territories and agricultural land. Methods: mechanical and chemical sample preparation of soils; potentiometric method for determining the nature of the soil environment; inversion voltammetry method for determining the concentration of gross forms of heavy metals. Results. The correspondence of sampling points to soil provinces is established, a brief description of the granulometric and geochemical composition of the studied soils is given. It was found that the analyzed soils are contaminated with nickel, zinc, lead and copper; there is a multiple excess of the approximate permissible concentrations of nickel in the soils of Ekaterinburg and Pervouralsk. The main sources of technogenic soil pollution of the Sverdlovsk region with heavy metals are listed. Natural factors contributing to the accumulation of metals are considered; possible mechanisms of fixing heavy metals in the soils of the region are described. The ranking of metal pollutants by their content in the studied soils was carried out. Quantitative criteria for the degree of soil pollution are calculated: the total pollution index and the geoaccumulation index. Based on the obtained values of the specified parameters, it is shown that the soils of residential landscapes are characterized by a moderately dangerous level of pollution, agricultural soils – an acceptable level of pollution. It was found that the greatest contribution to the total pollution index is made by cadmium.

Keywords

• heavy metals
• technogenic pollution
• residential landscape
• accumulation
• geochemical composition