Pedosphere 11(1): 31--37, 2001
ISSN 1002-0160/CN 32-1315/P
©2001 Soil Science Society of China
Published by Elsevier B.V. and Science Press
Characteristics of some heavy metals in acid sulfate topsoils, eastern Australia
C. LIN, D. MCCONCHIE, R. T. BUSH, L. A. SULLIVAN and M. ROSICKY
School of Resource Science and Management, Southern Cross University, Lismore, NSW (Australia)
ABSTRACT
      Forty-five acid sulfate topsoil samples (depth < 0.5 m) from 15 soil cores at 11 locations along the New South Wales coast, Australia, were selected to investigate the chemical behavior of Zn, Mn, Cr, Co and Pb in these soils. The amount of HCl-extractable Mn was much smaller than the mean value of the total Mn documented for other soils. This may be attributed to enhanced mobilization of Mn from the soils under the extremely acidic and seasonally flooded conditions encountered in the investigated soils. The pH-dependency of soluble Zn and Mn was strongly affected by the availability of acid reactive Zn and Mn compounds. There were fairly good relationships between soluble Zn and acid reactive Zn compounds, and between soluble Mn and acid reactive Mn compounds. Soluble Zn and soluble Mn concentrations were important controls on exchangeable Zn and Mn concentrations, respectively. In contrast to the suggestion by other authors that adsorption of Co was closely associated with Mn oxides present in soils, the exchangeable Co in the investigated acid sulfate soils was not clearly related to the abundance of Mn minerals. In addition to the fact that there are few Mn minerals present in the soils, this might also be because the availability of cation exchange sites on the crystal surfaces of Mn oxides was reduced under extremely acidic conditions.
Key Words:  acid sulfate soil, heavy metal, pH-dependency
Citation: Lin, C., Mcconchie, D., Bush, R. T., Sullivan, L. A. and Rosicky, M. 2001. Characteristics of some heavy metals in acid sulfate topsoils, eastern Australia. Pedosphere. 11(1): 31-37.
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