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Pollution status and health risk caused by heavy elements in the flooded soil and vegetables from typical agricultural region in Vojvodina Province, Serbia

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Abstract

The investigation conducted in the Vojvodina Province, as a typical European and one of the biggest agricultural regions in the Balkans, offers the research methodology that could be used for any non/flooded agricultural region. The flood impact on heavy elements (HE) content in the flooded arable soil (n = 16) in relation to the control soil (n = 16) was examined, as well as their accumulation in the most often cultivated vegetables (n = 96) in the studied area. Results revealed that the flood did not significantly change the pseudo total HEs concentration in the soil as well as their amounts accumulated in different soil fractions. In both soils, only the average content of Ni exceeded the maximum permissible values set by Serbian soil quality standard which is in line with the Dutch standard. In comparison with the background values, notable enrichment is found for most of analyzed elements in both soils. Soil pollution status was assessed through several indices indicating that contamination range was in the domain from a moderate to a highly polluted. The principal component analysis demonstrated that soil contamination was probably originated from agricultural/anthropogenic activities (Cd, Cu, As, Pb), apart from Ni, Cr, and Co which came from natural weathering of the parent material. Carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks of selected HEs for Serbian population in the investigated region were below the threshold values. The average levels of Pb in investigated potato and carrot samples were higher than the maximum allowable concentrations established by EU/Serbian regulation. The total hazard quotients (THQ) of HEs through intake of analyzed vegetables were below the safe threshold (˂ 1), suggesting the absence of adverse health effects.

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All data generated or analyzed during this study are included in this published article (and its supplementary information files).

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Acknowledgments

The results presented here are obtained within the projects no. 114-451-2044/2016-03 and 451-03-68/2020-14/200134 supported by the Secretariat for higher education and scientific research of the Province of Vojvodina and Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (451-03-68/2020-14/ 200134), respectively.

Funding

The research was financial supported by Secretariat for higher education and scientific research of the Province of Vojvodina (no. 114-451-2044/2016-03) and Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development (451-03-68/2020-14/200134).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory for Chemical Contaminants and Sustainable Development, Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, 21000, Serbia

    Biljana D. Škrbić, Jelena Živančev, Igor Antić & Maja Buljovčić

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  1. Biljana D. Škrbić
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  2. Jelena Živančev
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  4. Maja Buljovčić
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Contributions

Conceptualization, Biljana Škrbić; methodology, Jelena Živančev; formal analysis and investigation, Igor Antić and Maja Buljovčić; writing (original draft preparation), Jelena Živančev; writing (review and editing), Jelena Živančev and Biljana Škrbić; funding acquisition, Biljana Škrbić and Jelena Živančev; resources, Biljana Škrbić and Igor Antić; and supervision, Biljana Škrbić

All authors contributed to the study conception and design. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Biljana D. Škrbić.

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Škrbić, B.D., Živančev, J., Antić, I. et al. Pollution status and health risk caused by heavy elements in the flooded soil and vegetables from typical agricultural region in Vojvodina Province, Serbia. Environ Sci Pollut Res 28, 16065–16080 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-020-11794-w

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