Monitoring of elemental composition of soils in Ukraine

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.31548/dopovidi4(104).2023.005

Keywords:

Soil, heavy metals, pollution, cadmium, concentration, monitoring, lead, zinc

Abstract

A study was carried out in the Ukrainian Laboratory of Quality and Safety of Agricultural Products at the National University of Life and Environmental Sciences of Ukraine. Soil samples were collected from farms in five regions of Ukraine, namely Kyiv (Brovary district), Kherson, Lviv (Pustomyty district), Rivne (Mlyniv district), and the Chernihiv region (Sosnytskyi district) during spring and summer to determine the elemental composition and heavy metal content. The samples were taken from a 0-10 cm depth of the humus soil profile from a characteristic area of up to 100 m². The average sample of the research point was obtained by combining five separate samples. The heavy metal content was estimated using inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES), and the elemental composition was measured with an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrophotometer IRIS Intrepid II XSP (Thermo Elemental, USA). The method's detection limit is 0.1 mg/kg, and the standard used was ICP multi-element standard solution IV (Mercs KGaA, Germany). Soil contamination was observed in monitoring sites affected by various industrial enterprises, such as chemical industry and energy, with medium (moderately dangerous) and high (dangerous) levels of pollution. Anthropogenic geochemical associations of heavy metals in soils were identified. In the Kyiv region, the concentration of heavy metals on agricultural land where the samples were taken was within the maximum allowable concentration (MAC), indicating that it is possible to grow ecological agricultural products in those areas. The Cd content did not exceed the maximum permissible concentration in any of the five farms. The high level of Zn in samples from Kherson, Rivne, and Lviv regions could be due to the geomorphology of the studied areas and anthropogenic pressure on them, such as fires, pesticides, mineral fertilizers, and anthropogenic pollution. The monitoring results enable an assessment of plant contamination risks and forecast the likelihood of growing environmentally safe agricultural products in these conditions.

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Published

2023-08-30

Issue

No. 4/104 (2023)

Section

Agronomy

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