Effect of flooding on Contamination of Agricultural Soils, with Case study

Subject Areas : Water and Environment

Ramin Salmasi ¹

1 - Assistant Professor of Soil Science, Research center of agricultural and natural resource East Azarbayejan

Received: 2012-04-06 Accepted : 2012-12-06 Published : 2013-07-23

Keywords: erosion, Flood plain, pollutants, Soil Properties,

Abstract :

During the intensive flood in 1384, the floodplains in east Azerbayjan were waterlogged for a periodof 1 month. The aim of the study was to assess the effect of the flood on the level of contamination ofthe soils in this region. For this purpose, 20 soil samples were collected from the area immediatelyafter the flood event from the upper (0–30 cm) soil layer together with four samples from the 30–60-cm depth layer. The analysis included basic physicochemical soil properties, contents of Cd, Ni, Pb,Cu, and Zn metals. The concentrations of identified metals at all the samples were below theacceptable limits for agriculture use. The results show that this flooding episode in “clean” agriculturalarea had no immediate negative impact on the soils properties (organic matter percent, acidity, andnitrogen content) and did not result in excessive soil contamination.

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