Kowalkowski T., Tutu H., Cozmuta L.M., Sprynskyy M., Cukrowska E.M., Buszewski B.
Department of Environmental Chemistry and Bioanalytics, Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Gagarina 11, 87-100 Toruń, Poland; Department ofEnvironmental Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3 WITS, 2050 Johannesburg, South Africa; Chemistry-Biology Department, North University of Baia Mare, Victoriei Str., No. 62A, Baia Mare, Romania
Kowalkowski, T., Department of Environmental Chemistry and Bioanalytics, Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Gagarina 11, 87-100 Toruń, Poland; Tutu, H., Department ofEnvironmental Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3 WITS, 2050 Johannesburg, South Africa; Cozmuta, L.M., Chemistry-Biology Department, North University of Baia Mare, Victoriei Str., No. 62A, Baia Mare, Romania; Sprynskyy, M., Department of Environmental Chemistry and Bioanalytics, Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Gagarina 11, 87-100 Toruń, Poland; Cukrowska, E.M., Department ofEnvironmental Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Science, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3 WITS, 2050 Johannesburg, South Africa; Buszewski, B., Department of Environmental Chemistry and Bioanalytics, Faculty of Chemistry, Nicolaus Copernicus University, Gagarina 11, 87-100 Toruń, Poland
The objectives of this study were to evaluate the mobility of heavy metals (HMs) in two types of soils (acidic forest soil and neutral agricultural soil) by leaching with calcium chloride solution in column experiments. The screening properties of neutral agricultural soil towards pollution by heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Zn and Cd) are approximately 10 times higher than those of acid forest soil. The neutral agricultural soil, polluted artificially by one pore volume (PV) of an HMs solution of concentration 200 mg L-1, can screen the leaching of these metals over several hundreds of years. The higher apparent desorption rate and per cent desorption of HMs (especially Cd) in acid forest soil indicated a higher potential of intensive migration of the metals across the profile and indicated potential risk of Cd pollution for this type of soil. The latest approach of artificial neural networks to describe transport of HMs in soil has been also evaluated. Using a simple three-layer perceptron topology with three hidden neurons, the experimental data could be simulated. The results suggested that the pH of soil is a major factor controlling the retention of the heavy metals in the soils. © 2010 Taylor & Francis.