Relationships between soil properties and

contents in trace elements in a landscape

impacted by atmospheric fallouts in Belgium

Vienna (Austria), 8th April 2013

LIÉNARD AMANDINE* & COLINET GILLES

University of Liege – Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech – “Soil & Water Systems“ Unit

STUDY CONTEXT

Contaminated fallouts by

metallic trace elements (MTE)

Cd-Cu-Pb-Zn

Hosted ore

treatment factory

STUDY AREA - LOCALIZATION

Belgium

Wallonia

STUDY AREA - CHARACTERISTICS

Meuse valley

Situation of old

chimney

Loyse river

Forest Crop

Grassland Village

Impact of landscape

factors on MTE

distribution in soils

Interaction between

soil properties and

MTE contents in soils

Factors of variation

MTE mobility

Fate of MTE in contaminated landscape

AIMS

SAMPLING STRATEGY

Sampling points are distributed

between 3 distinct soil types, 3

land uses and 4 wind directions

(36 combinations)

1. Main soil types 2. Land use 3. Wind directions

Loamy soil with good drainage

Loamy soil with poor drainage

Loamy-stony soil with silexite and gravels

METHODOLOGY

i) 247 topsoil (0-20cm) samples are collected

ii) Chemical analyses :

- Pseudo-total (Aqua regia) and available (AA + EDTA (pH4.65))

contents in Ca-Mg-K-Fe-Al-Mn & Cd-Cu-Pb-Zn

- pHwater and pHKCl

- Total Organic Carbon

- N

iii) Statistical analyses :

- log transformation of all parameters excepted pH

- Ancova (2 or 3 ways) with distance as covariate

- Correlation

- PCA

Impact of landscape

factors on MTE

distribution in soils

Interaction between

soil properties and

MTE contents in soils

Variation factors of

MTE mobility

Fate of MTE in contaminated landscape

FIRST AIM

DISTANCE FROM SOURCE: THE MAIN FACTOR INFLUENCING MTE CONTENT

- Content in each MTE decreases with distance - P-value < 0.001 and R2 > 0.5

y = 30877x-1.248 R² = 0.5281

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000

Tota

l cad

miu

m c

on

ten

t (p

pm

)

Source of contamination distance (m)

Relation Cadmium - Distance

DIRECTION OF DOMINANT WINDS : A SECOND FACTOR WHICH INFLUENCES MTE CONTENT

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

South West North East

Cadmium content (ppm)

- Typical wind direction in Wallonia is South-West toward North-East

- MTE dispersion is higher along this axe

SOIL TYPES : A THIRD FACTOR WHICH INFLUENCES THE MTE CONTENT

- Presence of a soil type effect for Cd – Pb – Zn total content

- Loamy-stony soils with gravels contain more MTE than

loamy soils

Loamy-Stony(Gravels)Loamy(PoorDrainage)Loamy(GoodDrainage)

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

Lead total (log(ppm))

ab b a

SOIL TYPES : A THIRD FACTOR WHICH INFLUENCES THE MTE CONTENT

Effect maybe due to their position in the landscape

Loamy soil with

good drainage

Loamy soil with

poor drainage

Stony-loamy soil

with gravels

LAND USE : A LAST FACTOR WHICH INFLUENCES THE MTE CONTENT

GrasslandForestCrop

4.0

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

Zinc total (log(ppm))

a a a

GrasslandForestCrop

3.5

3.0

2.5

2.0

1.5

Lead total (log(ppm))

b a b

- Two different situations of MTE according to land use

- Cd and Zn total content are not impacted by land use in

opposite to Cu and Pb total content

CONFIRMATION BY PCA ANALYSIS

0.40.30.20.10.0-0.1-0.2-0.3

0.50

0.25

0.00

-0.25

-0.50

-0.75

First Component

Se

co

nd

Co

mp

on

en

t Distance

South

West

East

North

Forest

Grassland

Crop

Loamy soil (poor drainage)

Loamy soil (good drainage)

Stony-loamy (gravels)ZnTot

PbTot

CuTot

CdTot

ZnAvail.

PbAvail.

CuAvail.

CdAvail.

Principal Component Analysis (TS- LU - WD - Distance - MTE)

Impact of landscape

factors on MTE

distribution in soils

Interaction between

soil properties and

MTE contents in soils

Variation factors of

MTE mobility

Fate of MTE in contaminated landscape

SECOND AIM

RELATION BETWEEN SOIL PROPERTIES

AND LANDSCAPE FACTORS

0.40.30.20.10.0-0.1-0.2-0.3

0.5

0.4

0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0

-0.1

-0.2

-0.3

-0.4

First Component

Se

co

nd

Co

mp

on

en

t

Distance

South

West

EastNorth

Forest

Grassland

Crop

Loamy (PD)

Loamy (GD)

Loamy-stony

MnTot

AlTotFeTot

KTot

MgTot

CaTotMnAvail.

PAvail

AlAvail.

FeAvail.

KAvail.

MgAvail.

CaAvail.

N

COT

pHKCl

pHEau

Principal Component Analysis (TS - LU - WD - Distance - Soil parameters)

- No influence of soil type and distance

- Influence of land uses and one wind direction (a geologic impact)

RELATION BETWEEN PHKCL - COT

AND LANDSCAPE FACTORS

- Distance and wind directions factors

don’t affect pHKCl and COT values in soils

- Soil type and land use influence pH and

COT values in soils

GrasslandForestCrop

8

7

6

5

4

3

pHKCl

a

c

b

Comparison of MTE and pHKCl – COT

Distance Wind

direction Soil type Land use

MTE Yes Yes

Yes

(Cd-Pb-Zn)

Yes

(Cu–Pb)

pHKCl No No Yes Yes

COT No No Yes Yes

Impact of landscape

factors on MTE

distribution in soils

Interaction between

soil properties and

MTE contents in soils

Variation factors of

MTE mobility

Fate of MTE in contaminated landscape

THIRD AIM

RELATION BETWEEN MTE AVAILABLE/TOTAL RATIO

AND SOIL TYPE – LAND USE FACTORS

- Cd ratio is not influenced by the two factors

- Cu -Pb and Zn ratio are different according to land use ratio on forest

is always highest

- Zn ratio is modified by soil type loamy-stony soil contains a high

proportion of Zn available content

In forest, the fraction of potentially mobile Cu – Pb and Zn are more higher

as Zn in loamy-stony soil

GrasslandForestCrop

0.65

0.60

0.55

0.50

0.45

0.40

Me

an

(lo

g(p

pm

))

Pb available/total

Loamy-Stony(Gravels)Loamy(PoorDrainage)Loamy(GoodDrainage)

0.22

0.21

0.20

0.19

0.18

0.17

0.16

Me

an

(lo

g(p

pm

))

Zn available/total

Impact of landscape

factors on MTE

distribution in soils

Interaction between

soil properties and

MTE contents in soils

Factors of variation

MTE mobility

Fate of MTE in contaminated landscape

CONCLUSION

-Important impacts for

distance and wind

directions

- Soil and land use are

also significant - Classical relations

- pH and COT variability

is different than MTE

Soil type and land use

impact MTE mobility

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION…

RELATION BETWEEN ZN/PB AND ZN/CD

R² = 0.7257

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

3.0

3.5

4.0

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5

Pb

To

t co

nte

nt

(lo

g(p

pm

))

Zn Tot content (log(ppm))

Relation between Zn Tot and Pb Tot

R² = 0.8448

-1.0

-0.5

0.0

0.5

1.0

1.5

2.0

2.5

1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5

Cd

To

t co

nte

nt

(lo

g(p

pm

))

Zn Tot content (log(ppm))

Relation between Zn Tot and Cd Tot

-Contaminants contents are

strongly correlated one with the

other.

- It thus seems that they have

the same signature in term of

landscape dispersion