{"title":"Trace Metal Deposition on Soil and Accumulation in Plants around a Coal Power Station in Pretoria, South Africa","authors":"Mandla Xaba, J. Olowoyo, G. Scott","doi":"10.47125/jesam/2018_2/04","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Combustion of coal in power stations is one of the main sources of environmental pollution due to the generation of trace metals. This study investigated levels of trace metals from five different plants and soils around a coal-fired power station in Tshwane, South Africa. Plants and soil samples were collected from different points (10, 500 and 750 m) along different directions (North West, North East, South West and South East) and analyzed for metals contents using Inductive Couple Plasma–Optical Emission Spectrophotometer (ICP-OES). A significant increase in the concentration of trace metals was detected from the stack pointing to the effect of the long stack in depositing more trace metals at a distance of 750 m away from the power station. Digitaria diagonalis and Tagetes minuta have significantly higher concentrations of trace metals than other plants collected around the area (p < 0.05). The soil pH was in the range 5.13 ± 0.11 to 6.01 ± 0.12. The concentrations for all elements in soil were recorded in the following descending order: Fe > Al > Mg > Cr > Zn > Cu > Pb >Ni > Co.","PeriodicalId":15657,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Environmental Science and Management","volume":" ","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2019-09-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"1","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Environmental Science and Management","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.47125/jesam/2018_2/04","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"环境科学与生态学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 1
Abstract
Combustion of coal in power stations is one of the main sources of environmental pollution due to the generation of trace metals. This study investigated levels of trace metals from five different plants and soils around a coal-fired power station in Tshwane, South Africa. Plants and soil samples were collected from different points (10, 500 and 750 m) along different directions (North West, North East, South West and South East) and analyzed for metals contents using Inductive Couple Plasma–Optical Emission Spectrophotometer (ICP-OES). A significant increase in the concentration of trace metals was detected from the stack pointing to the effect of the long stack in depositing more trace metals at a distance of 750 m away from the power station. Digitaria diagonalis and Tagetes minuta have significantly higher concentrations of trace metals than other plants collected around the area (p < 0.05). The soil pH was in the range 5.13 ± 0.11 to 6.01 ± 0.12. The concentrations for all elements in soil were recorded in the following descending order: Fe > Al > Mg > Cr > Zn > Cu > Pb >Ni > Co.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Environmental Science and Management (JESAM) is an international scientific journal produced semi-annually by the University of the Philippines Los Baños (UPLB).
JESAM gives particular premium to manuscript submissions that employ integrated methods resulting to analyses that provide new insights in environmental science, particularly in the areas of:
environmental planning and management;
protected areas development, planning, and management;
community-based resources management;
environmental chemistry and toxicology;
environmental restoration;
social theory and environment; and
environmental security and management.