Metals in urban soils of Sevilla: seasonal changes and relations with other soil components and plant contents

• Published in: European journal of soil science 2004-06, Vol.55 (2), p.209-217
• Main Authors: Madrid, L., Díaz-Barrientos, E., Reinoso, R., Madrid, F.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 1351-0754; 1365-2389
• DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2389.2004.00589.x

Summary Soils of the urban area of Sevilla have been scarcely studied, especially concerning their concentrations of potentially toxic metals. A previous paper has shown that moderate pollution exists in soils from some public green areas of the city, and a common pattern was found in the distribution of the concentrations of some particular metals. The present paper is aimed at (i) determining possible seasonal changes in the measured concentrations; (ii) checking possible effects of the observed pollution on plant metal contents, and (iii) finding possible relations between metals by statistical techniques. Samples of 35 soils from the urban area of Sevilla were studied. Comparison with previous data shows that samples from a depth of 0–20 cm are representative of the measured soil properties for the city. We show that in most cases differences in the EDTA‐ and aqua regia‐extractable metal contents between autumn 2000 and summer 2001 are not significant. Only Zn shows significant decreases (P