Investigation of Spectral Variation of Pine Needles as an Indicator of Arsenic Content in Soils

Abstract

The spectral response to arsenic (As) stress of pine needles (Pinus densiflora Siebold and Zucc.) from an abandoned lead (Pb)–zinc (Zn) mine was investigated based on chemical and spectroscopic analyses. The correlation analysis between the content of As in needle samples and that of soils and spectral parameters of the needle samples were conducted. The results showed very high correlation between As content in pine needles and soils. The major spectral response of pine needles to the As stress were characterized by the increase in the green and red color reflectance, the decrease in the first derivatives at 1648 nm, and the shrink in the red absorption feature. These changes were caused by the pigment content loss and the structural changes of phenolic compounds in the pine needles due to the As content. The linear regression analysis with the stepwise method showed the first derivatives at 668 nm and 1648 nm were the most useful variables in the regression model for As content prediction in pine needles. The As index of pine needles could be used to detect As content in soils associated with As and heavy metals contamination and/or mineralization in coniferous forests.

Organic matter additions for improved revegetation of arsenic-rich waste rock with planted boreal conifers: a three-year in situ monitoring study

“…In natural forests (including forests adjacent to disturbed sites), the concentrations in Pinus spp. never exceeded 1 ppm (Juranović Cindrić et al, 2018;Shin et al, 2019). Data from this nonexhaustive literature review are presented in the Supplementary Material.…”

“…In the scientific literature, arsenic concentrations in the needles of conifers of the genus Pinus grown on disturbed sites never exceeded 8 ppm on average (Juranović Cindrić et al, 2018;Popovic et al, 2022;Shin et al, 2019;Wang et al, 2022;Yu et al, 2020). In natural forests (including forests adjacent to disturbed sites), the concentrations in Pinus spp.…”

Investigation of Soils and Pine Needles Using WDXRF and TXRF Techniques for Assessment of the Environmental Pollution of Shelekhov District, Eastern Siberia, by the Aluminum Industry and Heat Power Engineering

“…[1,2] XRF is actually applied for the environmental monitoring of urbanized areas, potentially polluted by the industrial emissions. Investigation of pollution indicators in some samples (such as soils and pine needles), represents a complementary tool for environmental monitoring and studying of different types of anthropogenic contributions, e.g., industrial and traffic emissions [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. XRF methods enable fast multi-elemental analysis of soils using portable energy dispersive (EDXRF) equipment [12][13][14][15][16][17] and quantitative analysis using benchtop wavelength dispersive (WDXRF) equipment [1,[18][19][20][21][22][23][24].…”