Ecological assessment of heavy metals in soil around a coal-fired thermal power plant in Turkey
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Date
2020
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Springer
Access Rights
info:eu-repo/semantics/closedAccess
Abstract
In this study, heavy metal concentrations in agricultural surface soil (0-5 cm) samples collected from the area around the Kangal lignite-fired thermal power plant were determined using energy-dispersive X-ray fluorescence spectrometry. Also, the pH values of agricultural soil samples were measured to assess the level of acidification. Geo-accumulation index (I-geo), enrichment factor (E-F), contamination factor (C-F), contamination degree (C-D), modified contamination degree (mC(D)), and pollution load index (I-PL) were estimated to assess the heavy metals pollution in soil samples. The average concentration of Fe, Ti, Mn, Cr, Ni, Zn, Zr, Co, Cu, Pb, As, Sn and Hg was found as 39,065 +/- 5096, 2262 +/- 738, 721 +/- 119, 713 +/- 236, 610 +/- 199, 82 +/- 37, 65 +/- 26, 64 +/- 19, 29 +/- 3, 17 +/- 7, 9 +/- 7, 3 +/- 1 and 2 +/- 1 mg kg(-1), respectively. The values of pH varied from 7.5 to 8.2 with an average value of 8.0 (moderately alkaline). The I-geo, E-F and C-F results reveal that the study area is heavily or very highly contaminated with Cr, Ni, and Hg. On the basis of the I-PL value, the soil samples are polluted with heavy metals. However, the mC(D) indicates moderate heavy-metal contamination of the soil samples.
Description
Keywords
Soil pollution, Heavy metals, Geo-accumulation index, Enrichment factor, Contamination factor, Pollution load index, Lignite-fired power plant
Journal or Series
Environmental Earth Sciences
WoS Q Value
Q2
Scopus Q Value
Q1
Volume
79
Issue
6
