An Emerging Frontier: Metal(loid) Soil Pollution Threat Under Global Climate Change

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Variability of Infiltration Rates at Selected Green Infrastructure Sites in New York City

Green infrastructure is a cost-effective, resilient approach to managing wet weather impacts and provides many additional benefits. In New York City, Green Infrastructure (GI) is designed to effectively capture stormwater runoff at the source, thereby reducing combined sewer overflow (CSO) – a leading cause of water quality problem in urban areas. The infiltration rate is the most important measurement of a soil’s capacity to capture stormwater in a GI system. The objectives of this research are to examine the variability of infiltration rates at different sites and within a site, and to investigate the factors that contribute to such variability. Field variables such as vegetation and root density were noted. Surface soil samples were collected and analyzed for moisture, organic content, bulk density and texture. Linear correlation and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were performed to examine the relationships between these variables and infiltration rates. The surface infiltration rates varied significantly (5–20 cm/h) among sites as well as at different locations within the same site. The effect of surface capping is minimal at most sites. There is no significant correlation between infiltration rates and single soil properties, except for that between bulk density and Ksat. PCA analysis suggests that multiple inter-related soil properties and field variables that affect infiltration rates. Soil texture and organic content appear to be the most important variables that control other properties and infiltration rates at the sites included in this study. © 2021, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

Remediation of an urban garden with elevated levels of soil contamination

Urban gardening is popular in many cities. However, many urban soils are contaminated and pose risks to human health. This study was conducted in a highly publicized urban garden in Brooklyn, NY with elevated Pb and As levels. Our objectives were to: (1) assess the nature and extent of Pb and As contamination at this site; (2) evaluate the effectiveness of amendments on reducing the bioaccessibility and phytoavailability of Pb and As in soil; and (3) assess the potential exposure of children to Pb and As through direct and indirect exposure pathways. Field surveys of the site revealed that contamination was highly concentrated in one area of the garden associated with fruit tree production. Field plots were established in this area, with three different treatments (bone meal, compost, sulfur) and an unamended control. Bioaccessibility of Pb was significantly reduced by all three treatments compared to the control (33%): bone meal (24%), compost (23%), sulfur (24%). In this study, As bioaccessibility remained high (80–93%) with or without treatments. We found that the effectiveness of soil remediation with amendments is variable and often limited, and contaminated sites can still pose a significant risk to urban gardeners. The results of a simple assessment model suggested that Pb and As exposure was mostly from soil and dust ingestion, rather than vegetable consumption. This work is unique in that it evaluates actual elevated levels of contamination, in actively gardened urban soils, in a highly visible public context. It fills important gaps between basic research and analysis of human exposure to toxic trace metals that can be a constraint on a highly beneficial activity. © 202

Agreement of four analytical methods applied to pb in soils from the small city of st. John’s, NewFoundland, Canada

In the small city of St. John’s, NL (2020 population ~114,000), 100% of the soils of the pre-1926 properties exceeded the Canadian soil Pb standard, 140 mg/kg. The Pb was traced to high-Pb coal ash used for heating and disposed on the soils outside. Analytical instruments became available in the late 1960s and 1970s and were first used for blood Pb and clinical studies and repurposed for measuring environmental Pb. The environmental research part of this study compared four common soil Pb analysis methods on the same set (N = 96) of St. John’s soil samples. The methods: The US EPA method 3050B, portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (pXRF), The Chaney–Mielke leachate extraction (1 M nitric acid), and the relative bioaccessibility leaching procedure (US EPA method 1340). Correlation is not the same as agreement. There is strong agreement (Berry–Mielke’s Universal R) among the four soil Pb analytical methods. Accordingly, precaution is normally advisable to protect children from the high-Pb garden soils and play areas. A public health reality check by Health Canada surveillance of St. John’s children (N = 257) noted remarkably low blood Pb. The low blood Pb of St. John’s’ children is contrary to the soil Pb results. Known urban processes causing the rise of environmental Pb and children’s Pb exposure includes particle size, aerosol emission by traffic congestion, and quantities of leaded petrol during the 20th century. Smaller cities had minor traffic congestion and limited combustion particles from leaded petrol. From the perspective of the 20th century era of urban Pb pollution, St. John’s, NL, children have blood Pb characteristics of a small city. © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland

Prediction of bioaccessible lead in urban and suburban soils with Vis-NIR diffuse reflectance spectroscopy

The successful use of visible and near-infrared (Vis-NIR) reflectance spectroscopy analysis requires selecting an optimal procedure of data acquisition and an accurate modeling approach. In this study, Vis-NIR with 350–2500 nm wavelengths were applied to detect different forms of lead (Pb) through the spectrally active soil constituents combining principal component regression (PCR) and Partial least-square regression (PLSR) for the Vis-NIR model calibration. Three clouds with different soil spectral properties were divided by the Linear discriminant analysis (LDA) in categories of Pb contamination risks: “low,” “health,” “ecological,” ranging from 200 to 750 mg kg−1. Farm soils were used for calibration (n = 26), and more polluted garden soils (n = 36) from New York City were used for validation. Total and bioaccessible Pb concentrations were examined with PLSR models and compared with Support Vector Machine (SVM) Regression and Boosting Regression Tree (BRT) models. Performances of all models' predictions were qualitatively evaluated by the Root Mean Square Error (RMSE), Residual Prediction Deviation (RPD), and coefficient of determination (R2). For total Pb, the best predictive models were obtained with BRT (R2 = 0.82 and RMSE 341.80 mg kg−1) followed by SVM (validation, R2 = 0.77 and RMSE 337.96 mg kg−1), and lastly by PLSR (validation, R2 = 0.74 and RMSE 499.04 mg kg−1). The PLSR technique is the most accurate calibration model for bioaccessible Pb with an R2 value of 0.91 and RMSE of 68.27 mg kg−1. The regression analysis indicated that bioaccessible Pb is strongly influenced by organic content, and to a lesser extent, by Fe concentrations. Although PLSR obtained lower accuracy, the model selected many characteristic bands and, thus, provided accurate approach for Pb pollution monitoring. © 2021 Elsevier B.V

Advanced determination of the spatial gradient of human health risk and ecological risk from exposure to As, Cu, Pb, and Zn in soils near the Ventanas Industrial Complex (Puchuncaví, Chile)

The townships of Puchuncaví and Quintero, on the coast of central Chile, have soils contaminated by atmospheric deposition of sulfur dioxide and trace elements from the nearby Ventanas Industrial Complex. The purpose of this study was to evaluate potential human health and ecological risks, by determining the spatial distribution of soil total concentrations arsenic (As), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), and zinc (Zn) in these townships. Total concentrations of these elements were determined in 245 topsoil samples, used to generate continuous distribution maps. The background concentrations of Cu, As, Pb, and Zn in the studied soils were 100, 16, 35, and 122 mg kg−1, respectively. The concentrations of Cu, As, and Pb were positively correlated with each other, suggesting that their source is the Ventanas copper smelter. On the other hand, correlations for Zn were weaker than for other trace elements, suggesting low impact of the Ventanas copper smelter on spatial distribution of Zn. Indeed, only 6% of the study area exhibited Zn concentrations above the background level. In contrast, 77, 32 and 35% of the study area presented Cu, As, and Pb concentrations, respectively, above the background level. The carcinogenic risk due to exposure to As was above the threshold value of 10−04 in the population of young children (1–5 years old) on 27% of the study area. These risk values are classified as unacceptable, which require specific intervention by the Chilean government. Based on the estimated concentrations of exchangeable Cu, 10, 15, and 75% of the study area exhibited high, medium, and low phytotoxicity risk, respectively. © 2019 Elsevier LtdCarcinogenic risk for children was above the threshold on 27% of the study area. High, medium, and low phytotoxicity risk was on 10, 15, and 75% of the study area, respectively. © 2019 Elsevier Lt

Use of Zinc Carbonate Spiking to Obtain Phytotoxicity Thresholds Comparable to Those in Field-Collected Soils

Several studies have reported the presence of smithsonite (ZnCO3) in soils polluted by zinc mining. The present study aimed to determine upper critical threshold values of Zn phytotoxicity in a substrate spiked with ZnCO3 and to compare them with those obtained in field-collected soils. We studied Zn toxicity to perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne L.) grown in pots with unpolluted peat treated with increasing concentrations of ZnCO3 that produced nominal total Zn concentrations of 0, 0.7, 1.3, 2.0, 2.6, and 3.3%. To keep constant near-neutral pH value in all the treatments, we used decreasing concentrations of dolomitic lime. In the treatment with total soil Zn of 3.3% (pH 6.8), the foliar Zn concentration of L. perenne was 1914 ± 211 mg kg–1, falling into the range of 2400 ± 300 mg kg–1 reported for Lolium species grown under similar laboratory conditions in a polluted soil (total soil Zn 5.4%, pH 7.3) collected near a Zn smelter. The value of 92 ± 98 mg kg–1 was obtained for the median effective concentration (EC50) values of 0.01 M KNO3-extractable Zn using the responses of shoot dry biomass, shoot length, and total pigments. This value falls within the range of 95 ± 46 mg kg–1 reported in other studies for the EC50 values of salt-extractable Zn using field-collected soils. The application of ZnCO3 for spiking was able to mimic foliar Zn concentrations of Lolium species observed in field-collected soils. The effective concentrations of soil Zn obtained in the present study are comparable to those obtained in field-collected soils. Future research should determine effective concentrations of metals using soils spiked with metal-containing compounds that mimic a real source of contamination. Environ Toxicol Chem 2020;39:1790–1796. © 2020 SETAC. © 2020 SETA

Vermiculite-Lizardite Industrial Wastes Promote Plant Growth in a Peat Soil Affected by a Cu/Ni Smelter: a Case Study at the Kola Peninsula, Russia

Some industrial barren areas are extreme habitats created by the deposition of airborne pollutants from non-ferrous smelters. One of such barrens exists in the vicinities of the Cu/Ni smelter, located at the Kola Peninsula, Murmansk region, Russia. This study aimed at evaluating in laboratory conditions the efficiency of various vermiculite-lizardite wastes (industrial wastes of local origin) as soil amendments for plant growth promotion. Peat topsoil (0–20 cm) was collected in the vicinity of the Cu/Ni smelter. Total soil concentrations were 1612, 1481, and 63 mg kg−1 for Ni, Cu, and Co, respectively, and soil pH was 4.3. Soils were amended with lime waste and different types of vermiculite-lizardite wastes (coarse, fine, and thermo-activated at 700 °C), leaving one soil untreated. Weekly wetting-drying cycles, performed during 1 month, allowed amendments to react in the soil. All soils were cultivated with Lolium perenne L. for 21 days under controlled conditions. The plant growth was not influenced by high soil Cu concentration, while Ni and Co caused phytotoxicity. A mix of 10% (w/w) of different vermiculite-lizardite wastes with 10% (w/w) of lime improved the plant growth. Thermo-activated waste showed the best results for promoting plant growth and reducing foliar Ni concentrations from 1022 to 88–117 mg kg−1. However, the plants presented Ni phytotoxicity even in the amended soils and this requires further studies to find a way to reduce it. © 2020, Sociedad Chilena de la Ciencia del Suelo

Correction to: Vermiculite-Lizardite Industrial Wastes Promote Plant Growth in a Peat Soil Affected by a Cu/Ni Smelter: a Case Study at the Kola Peninsula, Russia (Journal of Soil Science and Plant Nutrition, (2020), 20, 3, (1013-1018), 10.1007/s42729-020-00188-z)

The Funding Information provided in this article is incomplete.Here is the Funding Information in its entirety.Funding information This study was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (project 19–77-00077), the Russian Academy of Sciences (research topic № 0186– 2019-0011), the CONICYT PIA/BASAL FB0002 project (Center of Applied Ecology and Sustainability, CAPES), and the RUDN University “5–100” project. © 2020, Sociedad Chilena de la Ciencia del Suelo

Anthropogenic soils and landscapes of European Russia: Summer school from sea to sea—A didactic prototype

Field excursions and trainings are considered a key component of education programs in soil and environmental sciences. They allow mastering students’ practical skills in sampling and onsite assessments and improve understanding of ecosystem integrity and complexity. Urbanization has a substantial impact on soil properties and functions; however, field courses focused on urban soils are rare. We present a didactic prototype and the outcomes of the “Monitoring, Modeling, and Management of Urban Green Infrastructure and Soils (3MUGIS)” summer school—the first educational tour observing anthropogenic soils and landscapes along the bioclimatic gradient in European Russia, from tundra to dry steppes. Didactic learning was based on a studying-by-doing approach; students were involved in environmental assessment in multiple regions varying in climatic and socioeconomic features. Considering the high spatial heterogeneity of urban ecosystems, we used express techniques (portable X-ray fluorescence, infrared gas analyzers) for onsite soil analysis at multiple replicas. The data collected were discussed with local and international experts from Russia, Germany, the United States, and France in the context of regional environmental problems (e.g., pollution, soil degradation, and urban expansion). Students discovered zonal changes in vegetation (e.g., increasing tree height and diversity from north taiga to forest steppes) and soil properties (e.g., a gradual increase in pH and changes in soil organic C), as well as urban-specific processes and features (e.g., urban heat island effect or soil artifacts). The overall student feedback was very positive (50.8% excellent, 36% good); some specific organizational issues will be addressed for future 3MUGIS summer schools. © 2020 The Authors. Journal of Environmental Quality © 2020 American Society of Agronomy, Crop Science Society of America, and Soil Science Society of Americ