Geochemical background of potentially toxic trace elements in soils of the historic copper mining area: a case study from Miedzianka Mt., Holy Cross Mountains, south-central Poland

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the geochemical background and spatial distribution patterns of selected trace elements (As, Cd, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, Pb, U and Zn) in 62 surface soil samples collected in the historic Cu mining area (Miedzianka Mt., Holy Cross Mountains, south-central Poland). In the study area the mining activity dates back to the fourteenth century. After the shutdown of mining operations in 1953, the soil was not remediated and neither its mineralogy nor chemistry was examined. The examined soils showed a high variability in the element concentrations. The threshold values defined as the upper limits of geochemical background range (mg kg -1 in parentheses) were Cr (63), Mn (2156), Ni (39), Cu (52), Zn (175), As (36), Cd (2), Pb (73) and U (1.9). A high percentage of the samples exhibited trace element concentrations above the upper limit of the geochemical background range. The threshold values were evaluated in this study with application of the iterative 2r-technique. All of these values exceeded the standards recommended for soils in protected areas of Poland. The sampling points with anomalous concentrations of potentially toxic trace elements were located mostly in southern and western parts of the study area close to the sites of former mining activities. Very high concentrations of As, Cr and Ni at several sites may adversely influence the environment. High positive correlations between all the determined elements may be indicative of a common geogenic source of these elements and their geochemical affinity.

An Integrated Approach for Evaluating Water Quality between 2007–2015 in Santa Cruz Island in the Galapagos Archipelago

“…This was the case for coastal TP levels that exceed almost 100% with respect to the limits of Hawaii while background calculations suggested that levels were subject to natural increases that surpasses Hawaiian specific criteria for estuaries (3 NTU). Thus, the application of large-scale background values to evaluate local status of water quality is not recommended since local background is constrained by local conditions [17,18,21,22].…”

“…Alterations of water can pose a threat to public health and affect human access to safe water for drinking and domestic purposes, food production, and recreation [1]. In aquatic ecosystems, poor water quality can lead to detrimental effects such as the increase in algal biological processes, residence time of water, recharge inputs and transport processes [18,21]. For that reason, statistical methods are preferred for the calculation of local background levels.…”

Geochemical background of potentially toxic trace elements in reclaimed soils of the abandoned pyrite–uranium mine (south-central Poland)

“…In contrast, limited data exist on geochemical background of trace metal(loid)s in historic mining areas (Loredo et al 2006;Martínez et al 2007;Gałuszka et al 2015;Gutiérrez et al 2016). The quality of soils in these areas is very difficult to assess due to overlapping of anthropogenic and natural high concentrations of metal(loid)s and usually a very high variation of metal(loid) distribution patterns in soils .…”

Estimation of plant sampling uncertainty: an example based on chemical analysis of moss samples

“…Rejection of outlying values is not recommended because in environmental studies, they may carry a crucial information about the study area and potential “hot spots” (Gałuszka et al 2015). In this study, computed coefficients of skewness and shapes of histograms confirmed asymmetrical distribution of the majority of analyzed elements (Table 2).…”