Soil characterization and heavy metal pollution assessment in Orabi farms, El Obour, Egypt

• Main Authors: Salman A. Salman, Salah A. M. Zeid, El-Montser M. Seleem, Mahmoud A. Abdel-Hafiz
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: SpringerOpen 2019-03-01
• Series: Bulletin of the National Research Centre
• Subjects: Organic matter; Heavy metals; Contamination factor; Pollution load index; Orabi farms
• Online Access: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s42269-019-0082-1

Abstract Background Soil pollution negatively impacts on food safety and human health. The main aim of this work is to determine the As, Cd, Cr, Cu, and Pb concentrations in Orabi farms, El Obour city, Egypt. The contamination of soil with these metals was assessed by contamination factors (CF), degree of contamination (DC), pollution load index (PLI), ecological risk factor (Er), potential ecological risk index (PRI), and index of geoaccumulation (I geo). Eleven soil samples were collected from Orabi farms and analyzed for physicochemical characteristics. Results The results indicate that Orabi soils are considered alkaline (pH = 8.11), weakly calcareous (CaCO3 = 3.6%), sandy (sand = 90.23%) soils, and non-saline to slightly saline (EC = 4840.68  μS/cm) in nature. In addition, it contains negligible organic matter percent (OM = 3.15%) and so it is classified as mineral soil. The average concentrations of As, Cd, Cr, Cu, and Pb were 147.46, 2.31, 44.50, 4.10, and 13.01 mg/kg, respectively. Conclusion The calculated I geo, CF, and Er recorded that investigated soil samples are uncontaminated with Cr, Cu, and Pb, considerably contaminated with Cd, and highly contaminated with As. The calculated integrated pollution indices PRI, PLI, and DC showed that soil samples were contaminated with the studied heavy metals. The high CF values of As and Cd are the main contributor to soil high contamination. The application of fertilizers and other agricultural practice in the study area must be paid attention.