Assessment of contamination levels of heavy metals in the agricultural soils using ICP-OES

• Published in: Soil & sediment contamination 2023-08, Vol.32 (6), p.665-691
• Main Authors: Shaheen, Mohamed E, Tawfik, Walid, Mankola, Asmaa F., Gagnon, Joel E., Fryer, Brian J., El-Mekawy, Farouk M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accumulation; Agricultural land; Analytical methods; Anthropogenic factors; Cadmium; Chromium; Cluster analysis; Cobalt; Contamination; contamination levels; Copper; Emission spectroscopy; Heavy metals; ICP-OES; Inductively coupled plasma; Iron; Kafr El-Zayat; Lead; Magnesium; Manganese; Nickel; Optical emission spectroscopy; Pollutant load; Pollution; Pollution index; Pollution levels; Pollution load; Pollution sources; Principal components analysis; Soil; Soil classification; Soil contamination; Soil investigations; Soil pollution; Soils; Spectroscopy; Strontium; Zinc
• ISSN: 1532-0383; 1549-7887
• DOI: 10.1080/15320383.2022.2123448

This work was carried out to monitor contamination levels of twelve heavy metals (HMs) in the agricultural soils of Kafr El-Zayat city in Egypt. The concentrations of Mg, V, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Sr, and Pb were determined using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Contamination levels were estimated based on various geochemical parameters such as contamination factor (CF), enrichment factor (EF), geo-accumulation index (I geo ), degree of contamination (C d ), and pollution load index (PLI). The results showed that the majority of investigated soil samples were moderately contaminated (1 ≤ CF < 3) with V, Cr, Co, Cu, Zn, and Sr and had low contamination levels (CF