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Titel |
Assessment of environmental soil quality around Sonepur Bazari mine of Raniganj coalfield, India |
VerfasserIn |
R. E. Masto, S. Sheik, G. Nehru, V. A. Selvi, J. George, L. C. Ram |
Medientyp |
Artikel
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Sprache |
Englisch
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ISSN |
1869-9510
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Digitales Dokument |
URL |
Erschienen |
In: Solid Earth ; 6, no. 3 ; Nr. 6, no. 3 (2015-07-08), S.811-821 |
Datensatznummer |
250115496
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Publikation (Nr.) |
copernicus.org/se-6-811-2015.pdf |
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Zusammenfassung |
Assessment of soil quality is one of the key parameters for evaluation of
environmental contamination in the mining ecosystem. To investigate the
effect of coal mining on soil quality, opencast and underground mining sites
were selected in the Raniganj coalfield area, India. The physical, chemical,
and biological parameters of the soils, and trace metals and PAHs (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons) in the soils were
evaluated. Soil dehydrogenase (+79 %) and fluorescein (+32 %)
activities were significantly higher in underground mine (UGM) soil, whereas
peroxidase activity (+57 %) was higher in opencast mine (OCM) soil.
Content of As, Be, Co, Cr, Cu, Mn, Ni, and Pb was significantly higher in
OCM soil, whereas Cd was higher in UGM. In general, the PAHs contents were
higher in UGM soils, probably due to the natural coal burning at these sites.
The observed values for the above properties were converted into a unitless
score (0–1.00) and the scores were integrated into an environmental soil
quality index (ESQI). In the unscreened index (ESQI-1) all the soil
parameters were included and the results showed that the quality of the soil
was better for UGM (0.539) than the OCM (0.511) soils. Principal component
analysis was employed to derive ESQI-2 and accordingly, total PAHs, loss on
ignition, bulk density, Be, Co, Cr, Ni, Pb, and microbial quotient
(respiration: microbial biomass ratio) were found to be the most critical
properties. The ESQI-2 was also higher for soils near UGM (+10.1 %).
The observed indicators and the ESQI results revealed that soil quality
assessment for these coal mining soils is largely depended on soil PAHs and
potentially toxic trace metals. The proposed ESQI may be further refined by
incorporating specific parameters related to human exposure risks and
exposure pathways. |
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