Sources, Indicators, and Assessment of Soil Contamination by Potentially Toxic Metals

Xiaoping Xin, Jiali Shentu, Tiequan Zhang, Xiaoe Yang, Virupax C. Baligar and Zhenli He ()
Additional contact information
Xiaoping Xin: Indian River Research and Education Center, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Fort Pierce, FL 34945, USA
Jiali Shentu: College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Zhejiang Gongshang University, Hangzhou 314423, China
Tiequan Zhang: Science and Technology Branch, Harrow Research and Development Center, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Harrow, ON N0R 1G0, Canada
Xiaoe Yang: Ministry of Education Key Laboratory of Environment Remediation and Ecosystem Health, College of Environmental and Resources Science, Zhejiang University at Zijingang, Hangzhou 310058, China
Virupax C. Baligar: Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, USDA-ARS, Beltsville, MD 20705, USA
Zhenli He: Indian River Research and Education Center, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Fort Pierce, FL 34945, USA

Sustainability, 2022, vol. 14, issue 23, 1-16

Abstract: Soil pollution caused by potentially toxic metals has become a worldwide environmental issue. Geogenic processes and anthropogenic activities are two important sources of soil pollution. Soils may inherit toxic metals from parent materials; however, soil pollution mostly results from industrial and agricultural activities. Contamination by metals can be indicated by the changes in chemical, biochemical, and microbial properties of soils and plant responses. The total concentration of toxic metals in soil is still the most widely used indicator for risk assessment although extractable amounts have been reported to be more closely related to plant uptake. Several models have been proposed for assessing soil contamination by toxic metals, but none of them are commonly accepted for application to a wide range of soils. This review paper highlights how toxic metal contamination negatively affects soil and environmental quality, impacts food quality and security, and poses a threat to human health. Further research is needed to not only improve soil contamination diagnosis, modeling, and regulatory standards but also for remediation efficiency.

Keywords: assessment models; pollution sources; regulatory standards; soil contamination indicators; toxic metals (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15878/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/14/23/15878/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:14:y:2022:i:23:p:15878-:d:987535

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().