The contamination legacy of a decommissioned iron smelter in the Italian Alps

Gallini, Luigi; Ajmone-Marsan, Franco; Scalenghe, Riccardo

doi:10.1016/j.gexplo.2017.12.013

Cited by 10 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The box and flux models describing the leaching in soils of PTEs do not follow the Gaussian distribution shape typical of the physical advective-diffuse models because it is sensitive to layered soil horizon in homogeneity. The result obtained in the Scottish soil agree with the data obtained investigating Alpine soils developed on crystalline basement [16,23,34]. The box and flux model has provided a useful geochemical tool to investigate, describe and forecast the fate of trace PTEs contaminating the environmental ecosystems, as well as the potential human health impact of soil contamination by smelter plant activity [13].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

“…It is evident from Table 2 that the PTEs load throughout the examined soil profile is inhomogeneous among the different soil layers, and specific for any element. No element studied shows a Gaussian distribution across the profile, as usually observed in most of the soil analysis published in the literature and observed in the field [23]. It is hypothesized that the PTEs load in any soil layers reflects the adsorbed component in the soil, as well as specific chemical properties of individual PTEs.…”

Section: Pseudo-total Elemental Poolsupporting

confidence: 56%

“…Concentrations of "pseudo-total" metals were determined after digestion of soil samples with aqua-regia, which does not completely destroy silicates [21,23]. Then 2.0 g of dry soil was placed in a digestion vessel with 6 mL of HCl and 14 mL of HNO 3 and digested in microwave digestion unit (MLS-1200 Mega, Milestone Inc., Shelton, CT, USA), at rising temperature steps, and later filtered.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Three replicate analyses for samples were performed for all determinations. The Standard Deviation (SD) was below 10% for pH, texture, Cation Exchange Capacity (CEC), and below 1% for the aqua-regia extractable pool [16,23].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It should be noted that the trace metal concentration in the aqua-regia extractable pools and the soil average concentration reported in the literature are not directly comparable, because the global average soil composition quoted in the literature results from a total (HF) digestion and not by aquaregia extraction. The aqua-regia soil extract and does not allow us to estimate the PTEs occluded in most of the silica primary minerals, and it is believed to be almost everywhere strongly sensitive to anthropogenic soil PTEs load [23,25].…”

Section: Pseudo-total Elemental Poolmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Development and Validation of a Box and Flux Model to Describe Major, Trace and Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) in Scottish Soils

Gallini

Hursthouse

Scopa

2021

IJERPH

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The box and flux model is a mathematical tool used to describe and forecast the major and trace elements perturbations of the Earth biogeochemical cycles. This mathematical tool describes the biogeochemical cycles, using kinetics of first, second and even third order. The theory and history of the box and flux modeling are shortly revised and discussed within the framework of Jim Lovelok’s Gaia theory. The objectives of the investigation were to evaluate the natural versus anthropic load of Potentially Toxic Elements (PTEs) of the Scottish soils, investigate the soil components adsorbing and retaining the PTEs in non-mobile species, evaluate the aging factor of the anthropic PTEs and develop a model which describes the leaching of PTEs in layered soils. In the Scottish land, the soil-to-rock enrichment factorinversely correlates with the boiling point of the PTEs. The same is observed in NW Italy and USA soils, suggesting the common source of the PTEs. The residence time in soils of the measured PTEs linearly correlates with the Soil Organic Matter (SOM). The element property which mostly explains the adsorption capacity for PTEs’ is the ionic potential (IP). The downward migration rates of the PTEs inversely correlate with SOM, and in Scottish soil, they range from 0.5 to 2.0 cm·year−1. Organic Bentoniteis the most important soil phase adsorbing cation bivalent PTEs. The self-remediation time of the polluted soil examined ranged from 50 to 100 years. The aging factor, the adsorption of PTEs’ into non-mobile species, and occlusion into the soil mineral lattice was not effective. The box and flux model developed, tested and validatedhere does not describe the leaching of PTEs following the typical Gaussian shape distribution of the physical diffusion models. Indeed, the mathematical model proposed is sensitive to the inhomogeneity of the layered soils.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 75%

Section: Pseudo-total Elemental Poolsupporting

confidence: 56%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Pseudo-total Elemental Poolmentioning

confidence: 99%

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