This study has focused on evaluation on environmental contamination and seasonal variation of As and heavy metals in soils and crop plant (rice) in paddy fields around the Yeongdae Au-Ag mine. Paddy soils and crop plants were sampled at June, August and October, 2010 to examine seasonal variation of As and heavy metals. Soil samples were extracted by various methods including aqua regia, 1M MgCl2, 0.01M CaCl2 and 0.05M EDTA to evaluate the soil-plant relationships. Relative extraction ratio (RER) for As and heavy metals in the samples increased in the order of EDTA < MgCl2 < CaCl2. In the same extraction methods, the RER values for Cd and Zn were relatively higher than those for As, Cu and Pb due to differences in geochemical mobilities. For seasonal variation, relatively high concentrations of the elements were found in the soils and rice stalk grown under oxidizing conditions (October) than reducing (August) conditions. In addition, biological accumulation coefficients (BACs) of the rice stalks were higher than those of the rice grain, and the coefficients for Cd, Cu and Zn were higher than those for As and Pb.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.