Behavior of rare earth elements in the soil and vegetable cover of urban landscapes in Sochi

• Main Authors: Захарихина Л.В., Шарафан М.В.
• Format: Article
• Language: Russian
• Published: Institute of Volcanology and Seismology FEB RAS 2021-07-01
• Series: Вестник Камчатской региональной ассоциации "Учебно-научный центр". Серия: Науки о Земле
• Subjects: rare earth elements; urban landscape; soils; plants
• Online Access: http://www.kscnet.ru/journal/kraesc/article/view/664

The geochemical regional specialization of the behavior of rare earth elements (REE) in the soils of Sochi, manifested in the predominance of REE of the middle group, has been established. The enrichment by the middle group of REE is inherited from the rocks (mainly clayey mudstones) of the territory. At the same time, the features of the distribution of REE, characteristic of natural soils, are not violated for soils formed under the conditions of technogenesis. This indicates that the pollution of urban soils is determined by a natural and technogenic factor. The sources of pollution are man-made sites and talus, which lack a soil-vegetation layer, including those recently formed during the preparation for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and composed of the same material as the parent rocks, but significantly crushed and, accordingly, subject to active weathering. In mosses of the urban zone, in the eluvial landscape, the predominance of the middle group of REE is not observed. However, as we move down the slope, the REE distribution curve relative to the North American shale standardization becomes similar to the similar graph for soils and rocks. The relationship between the accumulation of elements in mosses, and in soils and underlying rocks is revealed when considering the features of fractionation of REE in mosses of the super-aquatic landscape.