Soil was incubated in the presence of Prudhoe Bay crude oil at 20 deg C under shake-flask conditions. With the addition of N and P to the medium, the susceptibility of aromatic compounds to microbial degradation over an 11-day period was found to be: naphthalene approx. = 2-methylnaphthalene 1-methylnaphthalene dimethylnaphthalenes approx. = dibenzothiophene approx. = phenanthrene C(,3)-napthalenes methyl-phenanthrenes C(,2)-phenanthrenes. The n-alkanes and isoprenoids (pristane and phytane) were also extensively degraded during this time. The omission of N and P from the medium reduced the extent to which the culture degraded the n-alkanes but had little effect on the degradation of the aromatic fraction after a 27-day incubation period.

The existence of a rainfall anomaly downwind of the St. Louis urban-industrial areas prompted a survey of area soils for elevated heavy metal concentrations. The goals of this work were to measure concentrations of Zn, Cd, and Pb, and to evaluate the role of the urban rainfall anomaly in their accumulation, in potentially-affected soils. Samples from three soil layers were collected from agricultural fields at 21 sites along two NE-SW transects. The samples were analyzed for pH, texture, cation exchange capacity, and total organic carbon, in addition to the three metals. The highest metal concentrations were observed near Granite City, Illinois, and coincided with an area of maximum Zn deposition in rain found in an earlier study. Only slight increases of the metals over background were found in the area of rainfall anomaly. Present rates of atmospheric deposition can account for these slightly elevated metal concentrations. However, the maximum concentrations found near Granity City cannot be accounted for by present atmospheric deposition rates. Other kinds of sources, or larger atmospheric deposition rates, perhaps during the operation of a local Zn smelter which closed about 1960, must have contributed.

The study quantifies the amount of metals, (Na, K, Mg, Ca, Al, Fe, Mn, Ni, Cr, V, Cu, Zn, Cd, Pb) leached from the A-horizon of a podzolic spruce forest soil in southern Sweden during 2.5 yr, and offers statistical evidence of environmental conditions of importance to metal release. Considerable losses of Pb, Cr, Ni and V may occur from the A-horizon of forest soils under conditions favoring leaching of organic matter, Fe, and Al, i.e. during periods of comparably high soil temperature and moisture. Metals with a larger fraction present in exchangeable form (Na, Mg, Ca, Zn, Cd) are more susceptible to minor pH changes. An accelerated deposition or internal production of acidic matter therefore will reduce the retention times of these elements particularly.

New York : Wiley, 1981.

A study has been made of the soil chemistry and atmospheric quality of 9 Sudbury area sites where populations of Deschampsia cespitosa have invaded the contaminated industrial barrens near the smelters since 1972. The rate of increase in cover within marked quadrats was greater at sites near the disused Coniston smelter than at sites near the two active smelters. Air quality monitoring, using bulk collectors and sulphation plates, indicated substantial drops in phytotoxic air pollutants during the 1978-79 smelter shutdowns. Surface loadings of various metals were evident in soil at sites near the active smelters, whereas this was no longer true at sites near the Coniston smelter disused since 1972. However, water extractable levels of Ni and Cu at these sites remained as high as those found near the active smelters which also have high extractable soil Al. Both comparative studies and multiple regression analysis indicate that the rate of increase in cover of D. cespitosa in the populations studied correlate best with particulate deposition of Cu and Ni followed by sulphation rate and then by soil extractable Al. These findings are discussed in relation to tolerances of local populations, as well as to the potential effects of airborne particulates on growth

The occurrence and distribution of heavy metals in the water of Lake Mariut, a heavily polluted brackish water lake in Egypt, and their accumulation in the different parts of Tilapia fish in this lake were studied. The variations in concentrations of the metals (Zn, Cu, Fe, Mn and Cd) in the lake water are mostly due to variations in the discharge rate of dumped wastes. The mean concentrations of these metals in different fish parts were much higher than those in the lake water.