Heavy metal content of plants growing on soils contaminated by lead mining
- 1 April 1971
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in The Journal of Agricultural Science
- Vol. 76 (2), 321-323
- https://doi.org/10.1017/s0021859600025697
Abstract
During the nineteenth century several parts of Wales were intensively mined for lead, zinc and copper ores. Fields adjacent to and downstream from the mines became contaminated by air- and water-borne heavy metal compounds. Such fields still contain high concentrations of total lead, zinc and copper together with silver and cadmium, the chief ‘guest’ elements in lead and zinc ores. Extraction of the soils with dilute acetic acid suggested that contaminated soils contained more of these metals that were available to plants (Alloway, 1969; Alloway & Davies, 1971). Some studies of plant composition were made to confirm the evidence from soil extraction and to indicate the extent to which these metals were entering the food chain.Keywords
This publication has 3 references indexed in Scilit:
- Lead contamination in mining areas in Western Ireland II.—Survey of animals, pastures, foods and watersJournal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 1969
- Agronomic Controls Over the Environmental Cycling of Trace ElementsPublished by Elsevier ,1968
- The lead content of pasture herbageJournal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 1966