Environmental Legacy and the Persistence of Heavy Metals from Gold Mining Operations in Mpumalanga Province, South Africa
This research was carried out on soil and vegetation samples collected at an abandoned settling pond in a gold mining area near Barberton, Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. It seeks to determine the degree of contamination in the area, an indication of bioavailability of selected heavy metals using recognised soil examination procedures and to determine whether the bioavailability indicated was in fact consistent with cation bioaccumulation by vegetation growing on the contaminated area. ICP-OES analysis of aqua regia extract from three soil samples revealed the persistence of Cu, Zn, Ni, Cr and As contamination. Plant samples demonstrated evidence of cation partitioning in three different species collected at the site. The effect of soil pH on mobility of the target metals is discussed and possible evidence of seed protection mechanisms within plants is argued. The authors utilised a three stage sequential and a single stage extraction scheme and a comparison between methods is presented. The two extraction methods used did not significantly correlate with accumulated concentrations of some metals. This work significantly increases knowledge of heavy metal persistence in the environment and the accuracy of recognised biomonitoring procedures used to assess the possible bioavailability of heavy metals in contaminated soils.
bioavailability bioaccumulation correlation gold mining heavy metals partitioning sequential eztraction
Bob WILSON Brian PYATT
Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Centre,School of Science and Technology,Nottingham Trent University,Clifton Lane,Nottingham,NG11 8NS,U.K.
国际会议
2009 International Symposium on Environmental Science and Technology(2009环境科学与技术国际会议)
上海
英文
1835-1842
2009-06-02（万方平台首次上网日期，不代表论文的发表时间）