Heavy-metal Pollution in the Sudbury Mining and Smelting Region of Canada, I. Soil and Vegetation Contamination by Nickel, Copper, and Other Metals

Environmental Conservation - Tập 1 Số 2 - Trang 123-132 - 1974
T. C. Hutchinson, L. Whitby1
1Department of Botany and Institute for Environmental Studies, University of Toronto, Toronto 181, Ontario, Canada.

Tóm tắt

Soil, vegetation, and rainfall, have been collected in the vicinity of a nickel–copper smelter at Sudbury, Ontario. The region is a major producer of many metals, and the large areas of forest desolation in the vicinity have been ascribed to sulphur dioxide fumigations over the past 80 years. In the present study, attention has been focused on potentially toxic heavy metals. Very elevated soil levels of nickel and copper were found, with values up to 5,104 ppm Ni and 2,892 ppm Cu within 1.1 km of the smelter. The concentrations decreased with distance to 49.8 km in one direction. Surface soils were the most contaminated, and a decline through the soil profile was found. Other metals such as iron, cobalt, and silver, showed a similar pattern of distance and depth, suggestive of an airborne source. Analyses of the foliage of three plant species also showed excessive levels of nickel and copper, as well as of aluminium. The levels declined with distance from the smelter.The relative possibilities of soilversusaerial uptake are considered. The soils within 2–3 km of the smelter were markedly more acidic than those from farther away, and this was paralleled by their increased conductivity. Dustfall–rainfall collections and analyses of the soluble heavy metals indicated that a major aerial source of metals existed, and that the problem of metallic emissions is not merely one of the past. Heavy metals are persistent in soils, and the ecological consequences to date have perhaps only been masked around Sudbury by the sulphur dioxide damage, and the particular importance attached to it in the past.

Từ khóa


Tài liệu tham khảo

Whitby L. M. (1974). The Ecological Consequences of Metallic Emissions from the Sudbury, Ontario, Smelters.Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto: 300 pp., illustr. (typescript).

Vinogradov, 1959, The Geochemistry of Rare and Dispersed Chemical Elements in Soils, 209

Thomas, 1956, Air Pollution Handbook, 1

Tatarskala, 1965, On the problem of occupational cancer of the upper-respiratory tract in the nickel refining industry, Gig. Tr. Psof. Zabol. Moskova, 9, 22

Sunderman, 1973, The current status of nickel carcinogenesis, Annals of Clinical Laboratory Science, 3, 156

Stone, 1968, Forest Fertilization: Theory and Practise, 132

Stokinger, 1963, Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, 2, 978

10.4141/cjss65-042

Nordman, 1973, Blood lead levels and erythrocyte S-amino levulinic acid dehydratase activity in people living around a secondary lead smelter, Work-Environm.-Hlth, 10, 19

Linzon, 1958, The influence of smelter fumes on the growth of White Pine in the Sudbury region, Ontario Dept Lands and Forests and Ontario Dept Mines, 45

Leblanc, 1966, Réaction de quelques lichens et mousses épiphytiques à l'anhydride sulfureux dans la région de Sudbury, Ontario, The Bryologist, 69, 338

Gresta, 1969, [Influence of zinc mining on soil.—in Polish, with English abstract.], Roczniki Gleboznawcze, 20

10.1139/b60-044

Dreisinger, 1970, S02 Levels and Vegetation Injury in the Sudbury Area During the 1969 Season, 45

10.1080/00039896.1971.10665999

Buchauer M. J. (1971). Effects of Zinc and Cadmium Pollution on Vegetation and Soils. Ph.D. thesis, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, N.J.: 103 pp. (mimeogr.).

Bowen, 1966, Trace Elements in Biochemistry

Sunderman, 1972, Measurements of nickel in serum and urine as indices of environmental exposure to nickel, Clinical Chemistry, 18, 992, 10.1093/clinchem/18.9.992

Mcdonald A. (1973). The Interaction of Trees and Airborne Particulate Matter. M.Sc. thesis, University of Toronto: 331 pp., illustr. (typescript).

10.1111/j.1469-8137.1968.tb05450.x

Thomas, 1965, Ecology and the Industrial Society, 11

10.1021/ja01948a002

Katz, 1938, Effects of Sulphur Dioxide on Vegetation, 369

Kerin, 1971, Delimitation of industrial emissions by means of plant analysis, Protectis vitae reprint, 4

10.1139/b60-031

10.1007/BF00779022

Hutchinson T. C. (1966). An Investigation of Populations of Teucrium scorodonia from Contrasting Soil Types, with Particular Reference to Their Susceptibility to Lime-chlorosis. Ph.D. thesis, University of Sheffield, England: 264 pp., illustr. (typescript).

Gordon, 1963, Some effects of smelter pollution upon the aquatic vegetation near Sudbury, Ontario, Can. J. Bot., 41, 371, 10.1139/b63-034

Gilbert, 1965, Ecology and the Industrial Society, 35

Thông tin
Thông tin xuất bản

Environmental Conservation

Tập 1 Số 2

123-132

Thông tin tác giả