Kooperativer Bibliotheksverbund

Language: English

In: Journal of Hazardous Materials, 21 March 2015, Vol.285, pp.137-139

Description: In recent years, several authors have suggested repeatedly that visible and near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy (VNIRS) could be an advantageous alternative to traditional wet-laboratory methods for the measurement of heavy metal concentrations in soils. In this comment, we argue that, on the contrary, VNIRS is of limited practical use in such a context and should not serve as an excuse to get rid of direly needed laboratory facilities. The key reasons are that VNIRS spectra are irremediably insensitive to the presence of heavy metals, that the effect of soil moisture and surface rugosity on VNIR sensing still has to be satisfactorily accounted for, and finally that VNIRS probes an extremely thin layer of soil at the surface, which is generally irrelevant in terms of plant growth. Given these intrinsic limitations, it seems indicated to put the persistent VNIRS myth to rest, and to explore other measurement techniques that may have more potential.

Keywords: Engineering ; Law

ISSN: 0304-3894

E-ISSN: 1873-3336

DOI: 10.1016/j.jhazmat.2014.11.043

URL: View record in ScienceDirect (Access to full text may be restricted)

Language: English

In: Geoderma, 01 June 2016, Vol.271, pp.254-255

Description: To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2015.11.025 Byline: Philippe C. Baveye, Magdeline Laba Article History: Received 18 September 2015; Accepted 19 November 2015

Keywords: Proximal Sensing ; Spatial Variability ; Soil Contamination ; Remediation ; Toxicology ; Agriculture

ISSN: 0016-7061

E-ISSN: 1872-6259

DOI: 10.1016/j.geoderma.2015.11.025

URL: View record in ScienceDirect (Access to full text may be restricted)

Language: English

In: Environmental Pollution, July 2018, Vol.238, pp.140-149

Description: Soil contamination due to atmospheric deposition of metals originating from smelters is a global environmental problem. A common problem associated with this contamination is the discrimination between anthropic and natural contributions to soil metal concentrations: In this context, we investigated the characteristics of soil contamination in the surrounding area of a world class smelter. We attempted to combine several approaches in order to identify sources of metals in soils and to examine contamination characteristics, such as pollution level, range, and spatial distribution. Soil samples were collected at 100 sites during a field survey and total concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn were analyzed. We conducted a multivariate statistical analysis, and also examined the spatial distribution by 1) identifying the horizontal variation of metals according to particular wind directions and distance from the smelter and 2) drawing a distribution map by means of a GIS tool. As, Cd, Cu, Hg, Pb, and Zn in the soil were found to originate from smelter emissions, and As also originated from other sources such as abandoned mines and waste landfill. Among anthropogenic metals, the horizontal distribution of Cd, Hg, Pb, and Zn according to the downwind direction and distance from the smelter showed a typical feature of atmospheric deposition (regression model:  =   + αe ). Lithogenic Fe was used as an indicator, and it revealed the continuous input and accumulation of these four elements in the surrounding soils. Our approach was effective in clearly identifying the sources of metals and analyzing their contamination characteristics. We believe this study will provide useful information to future studies on soil pollution by metals around smelters.

Keywords: Soil Contamination ; Smelter ; Metal ; Gis ; Atmospheric Deposition ; Engineering ; Environmental Sciences ; Anatomy & Physiology

ISSN: 0269-7491

E-ISSN: 1873-6424

DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2018.03.020

URL: View record in ScienceDirect (Access to full text may be restricted)

Language: English

In: Water, Air, & Soil Pollution, 2010, Vol.209(1), pp.377-390

Description: Near-infrared diffuse reflectance sensing (NIRS) of soils has been the object of considerable interest and research in the last few years. This has been motivated by the prospect that this method seems to provide a cheap, convenient alternative to conventional, time-consuming methods for the measurement of a wide range of soil parameters. In particular, various authors have advocated that NIRS could be used to measure rapidly and non-destructively the concentration of trace metals in surface soils. Correlation analyses between NIRS spectra and trace metal concentration have yielded inconclusive results to date, suggesting that trace metal concentration may belong to a class of “tertiary” soil parameters, linked to NIRS spectra through “surrogate”, or indirect, correlations, involving some other primary or secondary parameter like clay or organic matter content, to which NIRS spectra are very sensitive. To assess the validity of this surrogate correlation hypothesis in the case of trace metals, experiments were carried out with soil samples varying only in the amount of trace metals they contain. Field-aged Hudson and Arkport soil pots spiked with Cu and Zn, freshly spiked samples of the same soils, and samples of a metalliferous peat soil from Western New York naturally rich in Cd and Zn were subjected to NIRS under laboratory conditions. Detailed analysis indicates that the NIR spectrum is sensitive to sample handling, including the orientation of the samples in the NIRS instrument, but that, at the same time, there is no discernable effect of the presence of trace metals on any part of the NIR spectrum. These results provide strong experimental support to the hypothesis of “surrogate” correlation for trace metals, and indicate that trace metals, even in severely contaminated soils, should not interfere with the NIR sensing of primary or secondary parameters, like organic matter content. Further work is needed to determine if this feature of NIR spectra extends to other soil chemical parameters.

Keywords: Soil metal contamination ; Chemical analysis ; Near-infrared spectroscopy ; Remote sensing

ISSN: 0049-6979

E-ISSN: 1573-2932

DOI: 10.1007/s11270-009-0206-6

URL: View full text in Springer (Subscribers only)

Language: English

In: Journal of Soils and Sediments, 2015, Vol.15(3), pp.634-647

Description: Byline: Burcu UyuAur (1), Chunyan Li (2), Philippe C. Baveye (3), Christophe J. G. Darnault (2) Keywords: Geochemistry; Precipitation; Sorption; Two-site and mobile-immobile transport models; Uranyl silicates; Vadose zone Abstract: Purpose Uranium contamination of subsurface environments was once thought to be an isolated occurrence, mostly at production sites. But recent evidence has shown that the presence of uranium in phosphate fertilizers has caused massive amounts of this element to be released worldwide. Concerns are related to uranium movement to groundwater supplies and its significant toxicological risks to human populations. Information is direly needed on how geochemical processes control uranium transport in the vadose zone. Materials and methods Laboratory experiments were performed to investigate the effects of the pH of the soil solution on the reactive transport of uranium(VI) in the vadose zone. The uranium solution was prepared by dilution of a 10.sup.-3 M stock solution of uranium perchlorate, (UO.sub.2(ClO.sub.4).sub.2), with DI water. Two U(VI) solutions were prepared at concentrations of 2x10.sup.-6 M at pH 6 and 11 and were percolated under steady-state conditions through columns filled with sand. The convective-dispersion equation (CDE) was used to analyze the tracer and uranium breakthrough curves resulting from the column experiments. The program CXTFIT was used to estimate the transport parameters of equilibrium and nonequilibrium (i.e., two-site and mobile-immobile) models applied to the experimental data. Results and discussion Comparison of U(VI) breakthrough behavior at pH 6 with that of a nonreactive tracer indicated that U(VI) transport was significantly retarded, and about 52 % of the added U(VI) adsorbed to the quartz sand, likely in the cationic forms U[O.sub.2]OH.sup.+ and UO .sub.2 .sup.2+ . The adsorption was reversible upon the addition of deionized water. At pH 11, the U(VI) breakthrough curve increased gradually and reached a plateau value C/C .sub.0 oscillating between 72 and 82 %. Upon reaction, Si was released from the dissolution of quartz sand, which allowed the possible transport of U(VI) following precipitation of a U(VI) containing solid, such as uranyl-silicate minerals, or sorption of U(VI) onto silica colloids. Two-site and mobile-immobile (MIM) models suggested an influence of either rate-limited mass transfer processes or immobile/mobile water partitioning in U(VI) reactive transport. Conclusions The reactive transport of U(VI) governed by adsorption-desorption processes, precipitation, and complexation reactions in which kinetic behaviors are controlled by pH, solution chemistry, and heterogeneous flow regime impacts the mobility of U(VI). The column transport experiments indicated that under geochemical conditions and vadoze zone processes (preferential flow) that favor the mobility of U(VI), dissolved- and colloidal-phase associations of U(VI) may be transported rapidly and in high concentrations from the soil surface to the groundwater. Author Affiliation: (1) Tubitak Marmara Research Center, P.K. 21 41470, Gebze, Kocaeli, Turkey (2) Department of Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, L.G. Rich Environmental Laboratory, Clemson University, 342 Computer Court, Anderson, SC, 29625, USA (3) Laboratory of Soil and Water Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Rensselaer Polytechnic University, 319 Materials Research Center, 110 Eighth St., Troy, NY, 12180, USA Article History: Registration Date: 31/10/2014 Received Date: 19/05/2014 Accepted Date: 31/10/2014 Online Date: 20/11/2014 Article note: Responsible Editor: Dong-Mei Zhou

Keywords: Geochemistry ; Precipitation ; Sorption ; Two-site and mobile-immobile transport models ; Uranyl silicates ; Vadose zone

ISSN: 1439-0108

E-ISSN: 1614-7480

DOI: 10.1007/s11368-014-1018-x

URL: View full text in Springer (Subscribers only)

Language: English

In: Frontiers in Environmental Science, 01 June 2017, Vol.5

Description: Groundwater contamination by oocysts of the waterborne pathogen Cryptosporidium parvum is a significant cause of animal and human disease worldwide. Although research has been undertaken in the past to determine how specific physical and chemical properties of soils affect the risk of groundwater...

Keywords: Cryptosporidium ; Microorganisms ; Groundwater ; Soil Transport ; Qpcr ; Environmental Sciences

E-ISSN: 2296-665X

DOI: 10.3389/fenvs.2017.00039

URL: View full text in DOAJ

Language: English

In: Journal of Geochemical Exploration, October 2017, Vol.181, pp.129-137

Description: In many parts of the world, metal(loid)s resulting from mining activities are causing significant environmental concern, in particular because they are contaminating agricultural lands. In this respect, a previous study in South Korea suggested that a specific agricultural practice, associated with the growing of rice in paddy fields, could contribute specifically to the geographic spread of metal(loid)s contamination away from mine sites. The purpose of the research described in this article was to confirm this hypothesis at a different site. Samples from the surface soil of agricultural lands were collected from 374 sites (267 paddy soils and 107 dry field soils). The concentrations of As, Pb, Cd, Cu and Zn from the samples were analyzed and descriptive statistics and multivariate statistical analysis were carried out to identify potential sources of these various elements. In addition, geographical information systems (GIS) technology was applied to analyze the interrelationship between the mining activities and the distribution of meta(loid)s in agricultural lands. The results clearly show that the transport and distribution of As and Pb originating from the abandoned mine are distinct depending on the agricultural practice that was adopted locally. The highest concentrations of As and Pb are in agricultural soils nearest the abandoned mine site (〈 1 km) because of climatic factors such as wind and precipitation that affect the direct mobilization of metal-bearing mine wastes. However, the distribution characteristics of As and Pb in the oxidizing environment of dry field soils in general suggest that the degree of pollution by these elements fell notably as the distance from the abandoned mine increased. In the alternatingly oxidizing and reducing environment of paddy soils, by contrast, the distribution of As and Pb is noticeably different from those of the dry field soils. Arsenic in particular is widely distributed across the study area with a high level of pollution regardless of the distance from the abandoned mine. These results confirm the hypothesis that the transport characteristics of metal(loid)s initially mobilized from an abandoned mine site into the paddy soils are predominantly governed by the specific submerged environment of rice paddy soils and these specific environments impact a wider area than climatic factors.

Keywords: Abandoned Mine ; Metal(Loid) ; Arsenic ; Soil Contamination ; Paddy ; Gis ; Engineering

ISSN: 0375-6742

E-ISSN: 1879-1689

DOI: 10.1016/j.gexplo.2017.07.004

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Language: English

In: Environmental Science & Technology, 09/2007, Vol.41(18), pp.6343-6349

Description: The response of microorganisms to metal contamination of soils varies significantly from one investigation to another. One explanation is that metals are heterogeneously distributed at spatial scales relevant to microbes and that microoorganisms are able to avoid zones of intense contamination. This article aims to assess the microscale distribution of Cu in a vineyard soil. The spatial distribution of Cu was measured at two resolutions (0.3 mm and 20 mm) in thin sections of the surface 4 cm of undisturbed soil by electron microprobe and synchrotron X-ray microfluorescence spectroscopy. Bulk physicochemical analyses of Cu, pH, organic matter, texture, and mineralogy were performed. The results indicate that the Cu distribution is strongly heterogeneous at both scales of observation. Entire regions of the thin sections are virtually devoid of Cu, whereas highly localized "hotspots" have Cu signal intensities thousands of times higher than background. The distribution of Rb, or Al and Si, indicators of clay minerals, or Fe (iron (hydr)oxides), show that Cu is not preferentially associated with these mineral phases. Instead, Cu hotspots are associated with particulate organic matter. These observations suggest modification of current sampling protocols, and design of ecotoxicological experiments involving microorganisms, for contaminated soils.

Keywords: Vineyards ; Fluorescence ; Spatial Distribution ; Contamination ; Heavy Metals ; Hot Spots ; Organic Matter ; Electron Microprobe ; Retinoblastoma Protein ; Copper ; Spectroscopy ; Clays ; Soil Microorganisms ; Soil ; Soil Pollution ; Particulate Organic Matter ; Ionizing Radiation ; Microorganisms ; Mapping ; Sampling ; Ph Effects ; Iron ; Minerals ; Hot Spots ; Metals ; Clay ; Fluorescence ; Organic Matter ; Soil Contamination ; Particulates ; Mineralogy ; Spatial Distribution ; Vineyards ; Microorganisms ; Minerals ; Iron ; Land Pollution ; Antibiotics & Antimicrobials;

ISSN: 0013-936X

E-ISSN: 1520-5851

DOI: 10.1021/es070707m

Source: American Chemical Society (via CrossRef)