The relationship between historical development and potentially toxic element concentrations in urban soils

Evidence for co-selection of antibiotic resistance genes and mobile genetic elements in metal polluted urban soils

“…Archived metal concentration data (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn) were retrieved from the Tellus database for downstream analyses. The spatial distribution of these elements across Belfast has been reported previously (McIlwaine et al, 2017). Concentrations of As in soils were found to be controlled by anthropogenic inputs.…”

“…Concentrations of As in soils were found to be controlled by anthropogenic inputs. By contrast, concentrations of Cu and Zn were influenced by both anthropogenic and geogenic inputs, while concentrations of Ni, Co and Cr were mainly attributed to geogenic sources (McIlwaine et al, 2017).…”

“…Concentrations of metal(loid)s in the Belfast area have been shown to act as an 'urbanization tracer' (McIlwaine et al, 2017) and differential metal(loid) concentrations can, therefore, be largely attributed to anthropogenic contamination. By contrast, anthropogenic contamination of the Belfast area soils with antibiotics or ARGs can generally be considered negligible.…”

Measuring Copper, Lead and Zinc Concentrations and Oral Bioaccessibility as Part of the Soils in Scottish Schools Project

“…For example, the high concentrations of lead and zinc in playgrounds of Port Pirie, Australia [9] were attributed to the proximity of one of the world's largest lead-zinc smelters. However, generally elevated "urban background" levels of copper, lead and zinc have also been reported [10]-indeed, these are amongst the PTEs considered indicative of urbanisation [11]. This has also been noted in work focused on soil from locations where children play.…”

Variation in soil chemistry related to different classes and eras of urbanisation in the London area

“…Lark and Scheib (2013) used model-based analysis, cokriging and Wald statistics to examine how land use recorded at soil sample sites within the Great London Authority (GLA) area accounts for variations in soil Pb concentrations. McIlwaine et al (2017) reporting on the relationship between potentially toxic element (PTE) concentrations and historical urban development in the soils of Belfast and Sheffield concluded that different PTEs are associated with different periods of development and that soil pollution can be linked to diffuse contamination from road traffic, domestic fuel combustion and industrial processes.…”