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Targeted screening of contaminants and physico-chemical behaviors in permanent grass vegetation soils and agricultural soils from Eastern Slovakia

  • Soils, Sec 3 • Remediation and Management of Contaminated or Degraded Lands • Research Article
  • Published:
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Abstract

Purpose

To evaluate the ecological risk, physico-chemical properties, and the impact of anthropogenic sources on permanent eighteen samples of grass vegetation soils (PGVS) and agricultural soils (AS) near the U.S. Steel company in Košice city, Eastern Slovakia.

Methods

In this study, permanent grass vegetation soils (PGVS) and agricultural soils (AS) samples were analyzed. Samples were taken from the following localities (L): PGVS1a-1c; AS1a-1c from U.S. Steel-slag heap (L1), PGVS2a-2c; AS2a-2c from Gomboš (L2), PGVS3a-3c; AS3a-3c from U.S. Steel plant (main gate of U.S. Steel) (L3). The physico-chemical properties were determined using methods, such as thermal analysis (TG, DTG/DTA), X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), CHNS spectrometry, granulometry, and X-ray powder diffractometry (XRPD).

Results

The environmental quality index of Cd and Co in all samples was found to be ˃3 and indicated high pollution of the studied area by these elements. This assumption was confirmed by XRF spectrometry. For all the analyzed samples, the permitted limits for the elements Cd, Cr, and Co were largely exceeded, that also corresponded to the area from which they were taken. In all the studied samples, the C, H, N, and S concentrations were higher in the permanent grass soil samples than the concentrations in agricultural soil samples. The quartz was found as the major mineral; the others such as chlorite, albite, muscovite, or microcline were detected in smaller amounts. All samples were thermaly stable up to 40 °C.

Conclusions

In the surveyed area, the major source of heavy metal pollution was from industrial discharge. This demonstrates that effective management strategies could be developed to safeguard the environmental quality of agricultural soils and permanent grass vegetation in the studied area.

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Data availability

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

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Funding

The work was supported by the Research and Development Support Agency No. APVV20-0140, and the Slovak Grant Agency VEGA Project No. 2/0165/19.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environment and Hygiene in Mining, Institute of Geotechnics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 45, 040 01, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Lenka Findoráková, Oľga Šestinová & Jozef Hančuľák

  2. Department of Physical and Physico-Chemical Methods of Mineral Processing, Institute of Geotechnics, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 45, 040 01, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Marek Matik

  3. Institute of Materials Research, Slovak Academy of Sciences, Watsonova 47, 040 01, Košice, Slovak Republic

    Radovan Bureš

Authors
  1. Lenka Findoráková
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  2. Oľga Šestinová
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  3. Marek Matik
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  4. Jozef Hančuľák
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  5. Radovan Bureš
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Lenka Findoráková.

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Responsible editor: Claudio Colombo

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Findoráková, L., Šestinová, O., Matik, M. et al. Targeted screening of contaminants and physico-chemical behaviors in permanent grass vegetation soils and agricultural soils from Eastern Slovakia. J Soils Sediments 22, 2448–2458 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03250-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11368-022-03250-8

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