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Background concentrations and spatial distribution of heavy metals in Albania’s soils

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Abstract

This research aimed to determine the background and precautionary values of Cd, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb, Zn, Co, As, and Hg and provide the spatial distribution of these metals in Albania’s soils using statistical and geostatistical methods. Since the distribution of the data was commonly not Gaussian, they were transformed into their natural logarithm for deriving background concentrations and precautionary values. Background concentrations were defined as antilog of the median. Precautionary concentration values for soil protection were defined as antilog of 90th percentile of the ln-transformed data. Background concentrations in forest soils were larger compared to those in soils under other land use types. The largest background concentrations for Cd, Cr, Ni, Cu, Co, and Zn were found in forest soils formed on magmatic rocks, while largest concentrations of Pb and Hg were found in soils formed on flysch and molasse. The background values and precautionary concentration values (in brackets) (mg kg−1) for agricultural soils across flysch/molasses and quaternary deposits were as follows: Cd 0.24 (0.82), Cr 131.63 (527.42), Cu 41.26 (72.75), Ni 287.15 (632.70), Pb 19.11 (284.86), Zn 81.80 (113.90). The largest background values for Cd and Zn were found in Phaeozems, for Cr, Pb, and Co in Luvisols and Cambisols, and for Cu, Hg, and Ni in Fluvisols. The proposed background concentrations and precautionary values complete the picture of metal contents in European soils, can be used as reference concentrations for the Albanian environmental legislation, and allow the identification of potential contamination hot spots.

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Availability of data and material

The datasets used and/or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Peter Felix-Henningsen and the technical staff of the Institute of Soil Science and Soil Conservation of the Justus Liebig University of Giessen (Germany) for many years of suppport.

Funding

Funding was provided by the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdients (DAAD) (project number: 91573713).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Agricultural University of Tirana, Koder-Kamez 1029, Tirana, Albania

    Fran Gjoka

  2. Institute of Soil Science and Soil Conservation, Research Centre for Biosystems, Land Use and Nutrition (iFZ), Justus Liebig University Giessen, Heinrich-Buff-Ring 26-32, 35392, Giessen, Germany

    Rolf-Alexander Duering & Jan Siemens

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  1. Fran Gjoka
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  2. Rolf-Alexander Duering
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  3. Jan Siemens
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Fran Gjoka aquired funding, reviewed the literature, and collected the data. All authors interpreted the data. Fran Gjoka drafted the manuscript. Rolf-Alexander Düring and Jan Siemens provided cirtical revisions and amendments of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Fran Gjoka.

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Gjoka, F., Duering, RA. & Siemens, J. Background concentrations and spatial distribution of heavy metals in Albania’s soils. Environ Monit Assess 194, 115 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10661-022-09749-4

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