Investigation of Chemical Compositions of Urban, Industrial, Agricultural, and Rural Top-soils in Izmir, Turkey

Abstract

The top-soil samples were collected from urban, industrial, agricultural, and rural sites to investigate the modification in the elemental composition due to anthropogenic influence in one of the biggest city of Turkey, namely Izmir. The elemental profiles were dominated by lithophilic elements such as Al, Ca, Fe, Mg, K, and sea salt element, Na, which is typical for Mediterranean region. The trace elemental concentrations showed significant variation with higher concentrations in the industrial sites, particularly in the vicinity of iron-steel producers from scrap materials (EAF-Steels). Lead, Zn, and Cd around EAF-Steels were found to be higher than other sites. Comparison to universal upper crusts and local reference soil has shown that Izmir top-soils were contaminated in terms of many trace elements, most probably due to anthropogenic activities. Correlation matrix, crustal enrichment factors, and factor analysis were applied to investigate the extent of soil modification and possible sources. The results indicated that the elemental profiles of top-soils were mainly determined by parent materials; however, anthropogenic activities were found to be factor effective on the profile.