Selected heavy metal concentration in agricultural soils of Kundasang Sabah: preliminary study of potential toxic elements
1998
Baba Musta | Sahibin Abd. Rahim | Mohamad Md. Tan
Temperate vegetables in Kundasang Highland, Sabah, are cultivated on many soil types. The parent materials of the soils are mudstones, sandstones (belonging to the Crocker and Trusmadi Foramtions), serpentinite and adamellite blocks mixtures of different ratio of tilloid origin (belonging to the Pinousuk Gravel). Fifteen topsoil samples from cultivated areas were collected and analysed for their As, Co, Cr, Cu, Ni, Pb and Zn contents. The result showed that heavy metal concentrations in the topsoils ranged from 4-17 ppm for As, 4-47 ppm for Co, 70-152 ppm for Cr, 27-80 ppm for Cu, 16-48 ppm for Ni, 1-103 ppm for Pb and 42-447 ppm for ZN. The concentrations of Ni and As in the soils were constantly below the toxic level, whereas Cr content in soil was constantly higher than the critical level. Zinc was high in both the Pinousuk Gravel (L and N) and the Crocker Formation soils. NIA and N2A soil samples from Pinousuk Gravel contained high concentration of Pb and Cu, respectively. Cobalt content was above the threshold limit in the soils of Pinousuk Gravel (L2A and N2A), Trusmadi Formation (M2A) and Crocker formation (P3A). Arsenic was strongly correlated with Pb at 0.01 degree of freedom, and correlated with Cu at 0.5 degree of freedom.
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