Linking trace metals and agricultural land use in volcanic soils--a multivariate approach

The concern about the environmental impacts caused by agriculture intensification is growing as large amounts of nutrients and contaminants are introduced into soil ecosystems. Volcanic soils are unique naturally fertile resources extensively used for agricultural purposes, with particular physical and chemical properties that may result in possible accumulation of toxic substances, such as metals. Within this particular geological context, the present study aims to evaluate the impact of different agricultural systems (conventional, traditional and organic) in trace metal (TM) soil pollution and define the tracers for each one. Physicochemical properties and TM contents in agricultural topsoils were determined. Enrichment Factors (EF) were calculated to distinguish geogenic and anthropogenic contribution to TM contents in agricultural soils. An ensemble of multivariate statistical analyses (PCA and FDA) was performed to reduce the multidimensional space of variables and samples, thus defining a set of TM as tracers of distinct agricultural farming systems. Results show that agricultural soils have low organic matter content (<5%) compared to reference soil (>30%); in addition, electric conductivity in conventional farming soils is higher (262.3 ± 162.6 μS cm(-1)) while pH is lower (5.8 ± 0.3). Regarding metal inputs, V, Ba and Hg soil contents are mainly of geogenic origin, while Li, P, K, Cr, Mn, Ni, Cu, Zn, As, Mo, Cd and Pb result primarily from anthropogenic inputs. Li revealed to be a tracer of agricultural pollution in conventional farming soils, whereas V allowed the discrimination of traditional farming soils. This study points to agriculture as a diffuse source of anthropogenic TM soil pollution and is the first step to identify priority chemicals affecting agricultural Andosols.