Assessing heavy metal contamination of road side soil in urban area
Journal Title: Journal of Research in Biology - Year 2013, Vol 3, Issue 1
Abstract
Environmental pollution of heavy metals from automobiles has attained much attention in the recent past. The pollution of soil by heavy metals is a serious environmental issue. Heavy metals are released during different operations of the road transport such as combustion, component wear, fluid leakage and corrosion of metals lead, cadmium, copper and zinc which are the major metal pollutants of the road side environment. The present research is conducted to study heavy metal contamination in road side and industrial soil of Madurai city. The soil samples are collected from three sites and analyzed for six heavy metals (Pb, Cu, Cr, Zn, Ni and Cd). Their concentration and distribution in different depths (0 cm, 5 cm and 10 cm) were determined. Heavy metal contents were analyzed by Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS). The studies with Enrichment Factor (EF) indicate that lead has been enriched to quite great extent while the Normalized Scatter Coefficient values (NSC) indicate faster enrichment of cadmium. The level of heavy metals in road side soils were higher as compared to their natural background levels. The results revealed that the heavy metals are harmful to the road side vegetation, wild life and the neighbouring human settlements
Authors and Affiliations
Sarala Thambavani D, Vidya Vathana M
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP566362
- DOI -
- Views 70
- Downloads 0
Exercise, Training and Gut Function – a Physiological Perspective
Gastrointestinal (GI) tract adapts and cope with demands of the physical activity to exert maximum output in an athlete. Various GI functions, e.g., secretion, motility, circulation, emptying pattern, absorption, colonic...
Ethno-Veterinary Practices for Cattle Diseases in Ganjam District of Orissa, India
The present communication reports on few time-tested practices of 36 plants against 17 cattle diseases in some rural villages of Ganjam district of Orissa, including few plants used for milching of cattle are described
Simulation of the water behaviour at the Karaj dam break using numerical methods in GIS environment
Dam failure, estimating water velocity and height of wave caused as well as damage caused by the possible failure of dams, have long been of interest to researchers. In order to estimate these parameters, simulation of t...
Foraging and pollination behavior of Apis mellifera adansonii Latreille (Hymenoptera: Apidae) on Glycine max L. (Fabaceae) flowers at Maroua
To assess the impact of Apis mellifera adansonii on pod and seed yields of Glycine max, its foraging and pollinating activities were studied in Maroua, during the two season seasons (August-September 2010 and 2011). Obse...
Isolation and characterization of feather degrading bacteria from poultry waste
The aim of this study was to characterize keratinolytic bacteria isolated from feather waste. Feather waste is generated in large amounts as a by-product of commercial poultry processing. This residue is almost pure kera...