Fractionation and Mobility of Copper, Lead, and Zinc in Soil Profiles in the Vicinity of a Copper Smelter

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Abstract
Four soil profiles located near a copper smelter in Poland were investigated for the distribution and chemical fractions of Cu, Pb, and Zn and their mobility in relation to soil properties. Contamination with heavy metals was primarily restricted to surface horizons and the extent of contamination was 7‐ to 115‐fold for Cu, 30‐fold for Pb, and 6‐fold for Zn as compared with subsurface horizons. In the less‐contaminated fine‐textured soil, the metals were distributed in the order: residual >> Fe–Mn oxides occluded > organically complexed > exchangeable and specifically adsorbed, while the order for sandy soils was: residual > organically complexed > Fe–Mn oxides occluded > exchangeable and specifically adsorbed. The contaminated surface horizons of these profiles showed no consistent pattern of metal distribution. However, the common features of highly contaminated soils were very low percentage of residual fraction and the dominance of the NH4OAc extractable fraction. The sum of mobile metal fractions was generally M CaCl2 accounted for only a small part of the same metals extracted by NH4OAc. The mobility indexes of metals correlated positively and significantly with the total content of metals and negatively with the clay content.
Funding Information
  • Department of Soil and Water Sciences, Agricultural University of Norway