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Updated: Mar 21, 2026
Two-Dimensional Visualization and Quantification of Labile, Inorganic Plant Nutrients and Contaminants in Soil
Published on: September 1, 2020
Identification of soil heavy metal sources and improvement in spatial mapping based on soil spectral information: A
Tao Chen1, Qingrui Chang1, Jing Liu1
1College of Natural Resources and Environment, Northwest A&F University, Shaanxi, Yangling 712100, China.
Abstract:
In a sewage irrigation area of northwest China, 52 topsoil samples were collected to measure the contents of arsenic (As), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), lead (Pb) and zinc (Zn). To identify their sources, multivariate statistics and geostatistics were applied to separate pedogenic elements (As and Mn) from anthropogenic elements (Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn). The accumulation of soil Hg was mainly attributed to long-term sewage irrigation, whereas Cr, Ni and Zn were mainly from industrial activities and dust deposition. In addition to the impacts of industry and dust, traffic-related factors were the main sources of Pb and Cu contamination. Based on the relationships of heavy metals with various soil properties and reflectance spectra, co-kriging (CK) was used to improve the interpolation of heavy metals. Comparatively, soil spectra were more suitable as covariates due to their ease and low-cost of collecting as features.
