Variability of heavy trace metal contents in the soil adjacent to el-salam canal, Egypt

Abstract EN

This work was undertaken on 10 profiles representing cultivated and virgin soils adjacent to EL-Salam canal.

The results reveal that these soils are clay textured, highly saline to extremely saline, with Na+ and Cl-being the most predominant among soluble ions.

The soil reaction class was neutral to mildly alkaline and the soils were non-calcareous.

The total and chemically extractable Cu, Zn, Fe, Mn, Cd and Co varied widely within and between soil profiles.

Computation of the weighted means of the trace and heavy metals showed different levels of abundance of such metals.

This showed that Bahr El-Baker and Bah Hideous soils were enriched in total and chemically extractable Cu, Zn, Mn, and Cd together with chemically extractable Fe and Co, while being impoverished in total Fe and Co, respectively.

In contrast, Romani soils had low contents of total and chemically extractable Mn and Cd and low extractable amounts of Cu, Fe and Co.

The El-Tina mud flats and Balzac soils had very low contents of total and chemically–extractable Zn.

Variability in trace and heavy metals amounts within and between the profiles representing each location could be ascribed to variation in parent materials and / or the sedimentation regime.

Other factors include site-specific conditions and the possible contamination with some elements such as Cd or Co either from native sources or from polluting sources of the metropolitan area.