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Natural and anthropogenic metal inputs to soils in urban Uppsala, Sweden

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Abstract

Urban soils are complex systems due to human activities that disturb the natural development of the soil horizons and add hazardous elements. Remediation projects are common in urban areas and guideline values are set to represent a desired level of elements. However, the natural content of trace elements may not always equal the desired levels. In this study, an attempt is made to distinguish between metals that are present in the soil due to natural origins and to anthropogenic origins. Seventy-five soil samples of the 0–5, 5–10 and 10–20 cm layers were collected from 25 sites in urban areas of Uppsala City and analysed for aluminium (Al), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb), tungsten (W) and zinc (Zn) using aqua regia for digestion. In order to highlight elements of geological origin, the results were compared to a similar study carried out in Gothenburg City, which has about three times as many inhabitants as Uppsala and has a more industrial history. A cluster analysis was also performed to distinguish between elements of natural and anthropogenic origin. Contents of As, Al, Fe, Cr, Ni, Mn and W in Uppsala were concluded to be of mainly geological origin, while contents of Cd, Cu, Zn, Pb and Hg seemed to have been impacted upon by mainly urban activities.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge Mr Kaj Lax at the Geological Survey of Sweden, for his comments and help with the statistics. Our thanks also go Birgitta Olsson at the Environmental Research Laboratory in Umeå for the heavy metal analyses and to Kristina Öhman at the Department of Soil Sciences, SLU, for the mechanical analysis. We would also like to thank Mary McAfee for language corrections and URBSOIL project EVK4-2001-00055 for financing this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Soil Science, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7014, SE-750 07, Uppsala, Sweden

    K. Ljung & E. Otabbong

  2. Geological Survey of Sweden, BOX 670, SE-751 28, Uppsala, Sweden

    O. Selinus

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  1. K. Ljung
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  2. E. Otabbong
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  3. O. Selinus
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Correspondence to K. Ljung.

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Ljung, K., Otabbong, E. & Selinus, O. Natural and anthropogenic metal inputs to soils in urban Uppsala, Sweden . Environ Geochem Health 28, 353–364 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-005-9031-z

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