Heavy metal geochemistry and mineral magnetic characterization of urban soil in Xuzhou, China

In the present study, the enrichment, availability, speciation of heavy metals including Pb, Zn, Cu, Cd, Ni and Sb and magnetic properties of urban soils of Xuzhou (China) were investigated. All analyzed metals showed elevated concentrations compared to local background concentrations. Cadmium and Sb are the metals most enriched in the analyzed area, presenting enrichment factor, on average, of 16.5 and 8.3, respectively. By self-organizing map in combination with diagnostic ratios, the source of Sb, Cd, Cu and Pb in soils might be mainly from traffic emissions. Sequential extractions indicate that metals were primarily associated with the reducible fraction with the exception of Ni. The order of extraction efficiency of various metals was SBET (simplified physiologically based extraction test) > DTPA (diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid) > CaCl2. The magnetic results show that soil samples were dominated by a strong ferrimagnetic mineral component with multi- and single-domain magnetic grains. Only CaCl2 extractable Sb was found to show significant correlations with chi lf and SIRM. For both DTPA and SBET extractions, all metals investigated showed significant associations with both chi lf and SIRM (saturation isothermal remanent magnetization).