Correlative characteristic of cadmium in soils of steppe Dnieper region

Much attention is paid to searching for methods of establishing environmental standards for objective assessment of admissibility of anthropogenic load on the biosphere. The main pollutants of the environment are xenobiotics; heavy metals such as cadmium occupy hold a special place among them. Cadmium is one of the most dangerous environmental toxic agents, belonging to the 1stclass of hazard. Due to insufficient and fragmented information available on the distribution of cadmium in the city edaphotopes, it’s necessary to conduct additional research, taking into account the properties of soils and the biological characteristics of every element. The paper shows the ratio of cadmium in soils and soil-forming rocks of steppe Dnieper region. Environmental assessment of cadmium content in Dniprodzerzhinsk city soilsis made, and the problem of topsoil contamination of the city as a territory of high anthropogenic load is considered. It is found that the content of cadmium down the profile in natural soil increases. Enrichment of the topsoil with cadmium occurs due to contamination. The value of movable forms content, expressed as a percentage of the total content, varies from 12% to 70%, providing the evidence of the technogenic origin of cadmium in Dniprodzerzhinsk city topsoil. General and proximate correlation analyses of interrelation of soil cadmium and specifically selected characteristics of soil (pH, humus, sulfate ions, dry solid, chloride ions, total alkalinity, hygroscopic moisture) were made. It is established that cadmium concentration in the movable forms of natural soils of the steppe Dnieper region depends primarily on pH value. With the increase in pH value, concentration of movable cadmium in soil increases.