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Heavy metals in urban soils of Bristol (UK). Initial screening for contaminated land

  • SOILS, SEC 4 • ECOTOXICOLOGY • RESEARCH ARTICLE
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

UK local authorities are required by environmental regulations to keep a public register of contaminated land. In many towns and cities, there is growing concern of allotment holders about the quality of their allotment soils. Limited information on soil chemistry is available for the southwest of England. This work was carried out to assess whether any allotment and park soil in Bristol could be defined as “contaminated”.

Materials and methods

Samples of soil, sediments and bedrock material were analysed for “pseudo-total” As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, Zn and Fe by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry. Baseline heavy metal levels for this region were estimated on the basis of the composition of soil parent material, whilst sediment data provided information on the effect of chemical and physical weathering in the Bristol Avon River catchment area. UK Soil Guideline Values and statistical analysis were used to identify anomalies and sites requiring further investigation.

Results and discussion

Potentially contaminated sites were found at Durdham Downs Park (Pb, Zn, As), Troopers Hill Nature Reserve (Cu), Atwood Drive Allotments (Cd) and Packers Allotments (As). Estimated “upper threshold ranges” of the heavy metals of concern can be used as a preliminary site-specific screening tool to identify anomalies requiring more in-depth investigation. This approach takes into account that the sandstone underlying the Bristol district is naturally enriched in some heavy metals, particularly As, Ni and Cr. The very strong positive correlations between pairs of the elements Cr, Ni, Pb, Zn, Cd, Cu and As in the pelite fraction (<63 μm) of stream sediments point to a natural origin of these heavy metals.

Conclusions

There is evidence of heavy metal enrichment in some of the allotment and park soils analysed. In addition to the influence of anthropogenic sources, the bedrock of the Bristol district can account for much of the soil As, Cr and Ni. Owing to the natural high background levels of some elements in the underlying bedrock, published “ambient” soil heavy metal levels for England are not applicable to the city of Bristol.

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Acknowledgements

The author would like to thank Dave Molesworth and Rhiannon Davies for their help during fieldwork, Andrew Taylor for the ICP-OES analyses, Joseph Lartey for undertaking much of the soil sampling and soil preparation during the initial reconnaissance study, and Emma Waters for map production. Stephen Clamping (allotments manager at Bristol City Council), the parks managers, and allotment holders are gratefully acknowledged for allowing access to allotments and parks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Applied Sciences, Faculty of Health and Life Sciences, UWE Bristol, Coldharbour Lane, Bristol, BS16 1QY, UK

    Lorenzo Giusti

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  1. Lorenzo Giusti
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Correspondence to Lorenzo Giusti.

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Responsible editor: Jörg Römbke

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Table T1

Sampling locations and type of rock samples (DOC 164 kb)

Fig S1

Tukey box plots for pseudo-total Fe2O3 and Mn in the topsoil (15 cm) of six parks/green areas and six allotments (DOC 259 kb)

Fig S2

Canadian texture triangle (Toogood 1958) showing the texture of a 42 allotment soils and b 42 park soils from Bristol (DOC 218 kb)

Fig S3

Ratio of median metal concentration in 216 Bristol soils (this work) and the median metal concentration for English soils (Barraclough 2007; DOC 229 kb)

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Giusti, L. Heavy metals in urban soils of Bristol (UK). Initial screening for contaminated land. J Soils Sediments 11, 1385–1398 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-011-0434-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-011-0434-4

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