Mineralogical and geochemical patterns of urban surface soils, the example of Pforzheim, Germany

doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2006.06.014

Applied Geochemistry

Volume 21, Issue 12, December 2006, Pages 2064-2081

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apgeochem.2006.06.014 Get rights and content

Abstract

This study presents a combined geochemical and mineralogical survey of urban surface soils. Many studies on urban soils are restricted to purely chemical surveys in order to investigate soil pollution caused by anthropogenic activities such as traffic, heating, industrial processing, waste disposal and many more. In environmental studies, chemical elements are often distinguished as lithogenic and anthropogenic elements. As a novel contribution to those studies, the authors combined the analysis of a broad set of chemical elements with the analysis of the main mineralogical phases. The semi-quantification of mineralogical phases supported the assignment of groups of chemical elements to lithogenic or anthropogenic origin. Minerals are important sinks for toxic elements. Thus, knowledge about their distribution in soils is crucial for the assessment of the environmental hazards due to pollution of urban soils. In Pforzheim, surface soils (0–5 cm depth) from various land use types (forest, agriculture, urban green space, settlement areas of various site densities) overlying different geological units (clastic and chemical sediments) were investigated. Urban surface soils of Pforzheim reflect to a considerable degree the mineral and chemical composition of parent rocks. Irrespective of the parent rocks, elevated concentrations of heavy metals (Zn, Cu, Pb, Sn, Ag) were found in soils throughout the whole inner urban settlement area of Pforzheim indicating pollution. These pollutants will tend to accumulate in inner urban surface soils according to the available adsorption capacity, which is normally higher in soils overlying limestone than in soils overlying sandstone. However, inner urban surface soils overlying sandstone show elevated concentrations of carbonates, phyllo-silicates and Fe and elevated pH values compared with forest soils overlying sandstone. Thus, in comparison to forest soils overlying sandstones, inner urban soils overlying sandstone affected by pollution concurrently possess elevated concentrations of mineral phases typically providing relatively high adsorption capacities for heavy metals.

Introduction

The mineralogical and geochemical composition of urban surface soils reflect the soil parent material, pedogenic minerals, atmospheric deposition and man made soil components, such as construction, domestic and industrial waste or spilled liquids. Geochemical surveys of urban soils, have already been carried out for many urban areas such as Osnabrück (Bloemen et al., 1995), Greater London area (Kelly et al., 1996), Aberdeen (Paterson et al., 1996), Glebe/Sydney (Markus and McBratney, 1996), Salamanca and Valladolid (Sánchez-Martin et al., 2000), Hong Kong (Li et al., 2001), Karlsruhe (Norra, 2001, Norra et al., 2001, Norra et al., 2002), and Gibraltar (Mesilio et al., 2003). These studies are focused on heavy metals and present typical patterns of pollution of the most upper soil layers of cities. Soil pollution can partly be attributed to local pollution sources and partly to diffuse pollution sources. Especially the overall atmospheric pollution and the deposition of polluted atmospheric particulate matter contribute to the diffuse pollution of urban surface soils. Despite pollution, it has also been shown that urban surface soils can still reflect the chemical composition of the underlying geological units (Norra, 2001, Norra et al., 2005). Some authors have used multivariate statistical methods, such as cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA) to identify the main factors responsible for the chemical composition of urban soils (Bityukova et al., 2000, Facchinelli et al., 2001, Norra, 2001, Manta et al., 2002, Zhai et al., 2003, Madrid et al., 2004, Möller et al., 2005). Principally two factors or clusters are extracted subsuming elements of lithogenic origin and elements emitted from anthropogenic activities. In the solid phase of soils, chemical elements are components of specific minerals and of organic matter. However, specific mineral phases are not included in such investigations on urban soils. The objective of this study is to evaluate the meaning of mineralogical investigations to geochemical surveys of urban soils. A further aim of the study is to investigate the impact of urbanization on the mineralogical composition of soils. The authors are not aware of any surveys of the mineralogical composition of urban surface soils. For this study, Pforzheim, was chosen, being a typical medium sized city. Compared to megacities, a medium sized city has the advantage of limited distances between the city center and the transition towards the rural surrounding with more or less natural soils. Pforzheim is located in Germany (Fig. 1) on a clearly structured lithological situation comprising limestone, sandstone, loess and loam deposits and floodplains. These geological units contribute different patterns of mineralogical phases to soil development.

Section snippets

Area of investigation

Pforzheim, located in SW Germany and about 30 km west of Stuttgart, has a population of 115,000. The city is located around the rivers Enz, Würm and Nagold. The river Enz crosses the town from East to West (Fig. 2). The rivers Würm and Nagold flow from south to north meeting the Enz in the city centre. Morphologically, the rivers have carved valleys with steep slopes into a landscape, with altitude differences of more than 100 m. The river Enz has formed its bed along the boundary between

Sampling and sample preparation

Soil samples were taken at 58 locations distributed across the town (Fig. 1). Soil sampling sites were only chosen if they were covered by herbaceous vegetation and grasses and sites were not shaded by trees or buildings so guaranteeing minimal disturbance of free deposition of atmospheric particles. According to these preconditions, soil samples were collected as regularly as possible across the investigation area of approximately 14.3 km². At every location, 3 soil samples of the upper 5 cm

Results

Summary statistics of 33 single parameters are listed in Table 1 according to the soil parent materials. In this table, additionally to the mean, the median is listed as a robust measure of the central value because in some cases concentrations were below the corresponding detection limit and in other cases concentrations were locally influenced by anthropogenic activities.

Quartz is the main mineral phase in all soils. Further phases are feldspar and mica. Kaolinite, calcite and dolomite show

Spatial distribution of trace metal pollution of Pforzheim surface soils

The impact of anthropogenic activities on the chemical composition of surface soils of the area of Pforzheim can be demonstrated exemplarily by means of Pb and Zn abundances. In Baden-Württemberg, the average background concentrations of Pb and Zn in soils overlying sandstone are 19.8 mg/kg and 29.7 mg/kg, respectively (Landesanstalt für Umweltschutz Baden-Württemberg, 1994). Most soils overlying sandstone investigated in this study show Zn concentrations from 15 to 100 mg/kg and Pb concentrations

Summary and conclusions

Urban surface soils reflect to a considerable extent the mineral composition of parent rocks. Mineralogical and geochemical differences were especially found between clastic and chemical sediments (limestone). Elevated concentrations of quartz and feldspar indicate surface soils overlying clastic sediments, whereas elevated concentrations of calcite and expandable phyllo-silicates reflect soils overlying limestone. In the area investigated, inner urban surface soils overlying sandstones show

Acknowledgements

First, the authors express their gratitude to Dr. E. Karottke for mineral phase analyses. Furthermore we thank the environmental bureau of the city of Pforzheim for permission to take the samples. We also thank Mrs. B. Oetzel and Mr. F. Scholz for technical support. We are also grateful to Prof. P. Freckmann for supporting the stay of M. Lanka-Panditha in Germany.

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Mineralogical and geochemical patterns of urban surface soils, the example of Pforzheim, Germany

Abstract

Introduction

Section snippets

Area of investigation

Sampling and sample preparation

Results

Spatial distribution of trace metal pollution of Pforzheim surface soils

Summary and conclusions

Acknowledgements

Sci. Total Environ.

Chem. Geol.

Environ. Pollut.

Appl. Geochem.

J. Geochem. Explor.

Appl. Geochem.

Sci. Total Environ.

Geoderma

Appl. Geochem.

Schwermetalle in Böden

Arsenic mobilisation and bioavailability in soils

Urban geochemistry: a study of element distributions in the soils of Tallinn (Estonia)

Environ. Geochem. Health

Böden

Lehrbuch der Bodenkunde

Soils in urban and industrial environments

Z. Pflanzenernähr. Bodenk.

Carbonate halide sulfate and sulfide minerals

Weniger häufig vorkommende Element emit potentieller Bedeutung für die Umwelt

Titanium and zirconium minerals

Einfluss des Kraftfahrzeugverkehrs auf den Schwermetallgehalt von Straßenabflusswasser

Forum Städte-Hygiene

Geologie von Baden-Württemberg

Städtische Ökosysteme

Rubidium

Urbane Böden