Dear:

Study specific factors not general, such as heavy metals pollutant or some hazardous materials.

Simple soil parameters include pH, electrical conductivity, density, salt contents, macro nutrients.

To be more specific, if facilities are available, heavy metal and pesticides can be included.

Can you be more clear on your question?

Pollutants determined in soil and groundwater on the polluted site are chosen according to former use of the site: some kind of industry, a slaughterhouse, chemical storage facility, agrochemicals storage facility, logistic center, servis station, ......

According to activities performed in history, you can determine the most probable pollutants in the environment. Such pollutants are monitored for environment risk assessment. The pollutants can be chemical ones but also microbiological ones (as is the case of a former slaughterhouse).

For laboratory determination are employed standardized method (analytical, microbiological).

This is valid for the Czech Republic.

Best regards

Vit

Beatriz.... This is a big question. I published a book on this topic in 2015 dealing with environmental applications of instrumental chemical analysis..

https://www.booktopia.com.au/environmental-applications-of-instrumental-chemical-analysis-mahmood-barbooti/prod9781771880619.html

Good luck

I know very little about species in soil, wish you the best.

There are many parameters to study the chemistry of soil and determined the soil contamination include pH, electrical conductivity, density, salt contents, macro nutrients. metals, salinity, and toxic heavy metals.

You sate " It is clear to me that pH, electrical conductivity, macro and micro components, hydrology conditions, type of soil, OM %, etc would allow knowing the conditions in which the pollutants would be metabolized and ultimately present toxicity. " none of these factors really affect soil toxicity.

It seems like you are looking for a one size fitsd all solution and thats not really possible, it was tried with the failed EU soil directives and one of the major sticking points was how to define contmaiantion. Contamiants of concern vary from nation to nation as do the soil properties that affect toxicity. Of particular relevance to metals and organics is organic carbon and silt and clay fraction. In the Netherlands typoical values for these are 15% & 25% while in the UK its more like 5% and 15% which has amarked effect on metal& organic toxicity.

Adding bioavailability further complicates the matter and testing for bioavailability is very expensive.

There has been alot of work done across Europe to dvelop soil quality indicators and I would suggest that you have alook at these as they will show the wide variation in approach.

A basic minimum would be Soil fraction OM, silt/clay content, Hg, Cd, Cr (3 + 6), Ni, (phytotoxicity Zn, Cu) , Pb with speciated PAH's or to recuce costs simply look at BaP ehich accounts for 96.8% of the toxicity for the whole group of PAH (unpublished work by Health Protection Agency UK 2003). Cation exchange capacity would also be useful.

Effectively you could apply the regional risk apprroach as outlined in REACH. The big problem for soil calssification remains a lack of replication in sample collection.

You should be aware that to accurately classify a soil physical and chemcial properties requires at least 25 samples per hectare for a homogenious, natural soil. In urban areas these do not exist yet classification is carried out on a single sample from a50 km grid. The uncertainty associated with these kinds of measuremetns is so high they have littel relevance to the real world.

Far better to develop targeted programs to address the specific problems in each country.

See UK Soil and Pollutant Herbage Study if you want to see the results of this type of approach

Valuable discussion

William McMinn, thanks very much for taking your time and giving an discussible answer. I am surprised that you say that the conditions I mentioned (pH, conductivity, OM, etc), do not affect soil toxicity. Perhaps I am not getting something or we have a term definition problem here. For instance, Sodium as salt form is mostly inocuous (low conc), but if present in another redox form, like metalic sodium, it is not. Copper toxicity had been shown to be dependent on pH ( Article Influence of Water Hardness, pH, and Alkalinity on the Mecha...

pH, electrical conductivity, macro and micro components, hydrology conditions, type of soil, OM %,

Vit Mateju , Nafees Mohammad, Mahmood M. Barbooti , Omar Ali Al-Khashman Mala Babagana Gutti, @nashi and @Rushdi Sabah Abdulqader thanks very much for your reply, thinking on your countries of origen, would you agree with William McMinn that :

• "A basic minimum would be Soil fraction OM, silt/clay content, Hg, Cd, Cr (3 + 6), Ni, (phytotoxicity Zn, Cu) , Pb with speciated PAH's or to recuce costs simply look at BaP ehich accounts for 96.8% of the toxicity for the whole group of PAH (unpublished work by Health Protection Agency UK 2003). Cation exchange capacity would also be useful.
• Effectively you could apply the regional risk apprroach as outlined in REACH"

?

On the other hand, regarding about what to measure?, the remediation work would be to safeguard the ecosystem and therefore it would be important to measure Bioavailability and model the possible flow in the system, otherwise the toxicity and risk assestment wont be realistic. Moreover, even when toxic substances are on the natural level for a region, that does not mean they are not a danger.

Following

Beatriz ..... William is right... such parameters are considered among the properties of soil. Talking about the pollution or contamination is a special task where certain chemicals are introduced to soil after industrial or mineralogical activities that dispose such toxic and hazardous chemicals, like lead, cadmium, PCB's, phenols, etc... These will be the real pollutants and environmental chemists do not consider pH, TDS,...etc as pollutants. However among the routine analyses, the COD, and BOD can be regarded as a rough measure of organic pollution... Regards..

Interesting

Study environmental chemistry and environmental geochemistry is very important to give an a picture around soil chemistry

Mahmood M. Barbooti I never said that the conditions I mentioned where pollutants, please read again. I said that it would play a role in whether a contaminant is toxic or not, because of this conditions a contaminant is mobilized in the ecosystem or not, that is why, it was for me only obvious (so not in discussion really) that it should be necessary to analyse them in order to model the potential toxicity. So I said that it is clear to me, they have to be analyzed as baseline. But my question was a personal one, from a point of view of your own country, taking into account that you know what are your own resources and needs: which will be the basic minimum to analyze for instance: Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) ?, trace elements? Dioxins ? Chlorinated hydrocarbons ? Radionucleids ? Explosives ? pharmaceuticals?. But most importantly, how exactly to report, so that it will be meaningfull, just concentration? bioavailability? potential mobility? Or would it be better to ask first about the mortality  due to Pollution in your country, the number of sites contaminated, the economic cost involved?  and after that to ask: what would be the minimum to analyze?

Hi very good question

I think you msy concentate upon which chemical used in the place of contamination

Good contributions

Valuable discussion..

Dear Colleagues: FAO/GSP has launched a survey on soil pollution for the Assessment of the global status and regional trends of soil pollution, please fill it up and feel free to share it. This will be a first step to coordinated efforts for risk mitigation, remediation and will contribute to achieve several of the sustainability development goals.

http://www.fao.org/global-soil-partnership/resources/highlights/detail/en/c/1184829/

Deadline to fill up the survey is 10 May 2019

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