Proposed Indices for Assessing Soil Pollution Under the Application of Sludge

Kalavrouziotis, Ioannis K.; Koukoulakis, Prodromos H.; Ntzala, Georgia; Papadopoulos, Aristotelis H.

Proposed Indices for Assessing Soil Pollution Under the Application of Sludge

2012

Kalavrouziotis, Ioannis K. | Koukoulakis, Prodromos H. | Ntzala, Georgia | Papadopoulos, Aristotelis H.

The assessment of soil pollution with heavy metals has been studied, based on experimental soil and plant analytical heavy metal data obtained by a pot experiment conducted during 2010–2011 in a green house. A completely randomized block design was used, including the following sludge treatments (in tons per hectare): 0, 6, 12, 18, 24, 30, and (30+treated wastewater) in four replications. Lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) var. longifolia was used as a test plant. Three indices were proposed, i.e., (1) elemental pollution index, (2) heavy metal load, and (3) total concentration factor. They were found to be linearly and statistically significantly related to the pollution load index, which was used as a reference index, and curvilinearly related to lettuce dry matter yield. It was concluded that the above indices could be used for the assessment of soil pollution level.

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