Monitoring the Contamination of Greenhouse Soils with the Most Important Heavy Metals (Cd, Cr, Ni, Co) in Tartous Provence

Abstract

This research was carried out in Tartous governorate during the years 2013, 2014 and 2015 in order to assess greenhouses contamination with heavy metals under agro-intensification conditions in Tartous governorate and to study the relationship between the total content of heavy metals in the soil and the content of both the essential nutrients and organic matter.

Soil samples were collected from 88 greenhouses prevailing in the governorate. Organic matter, basic minerals, and total content of Cd, Cr, Co and Ni in soil were assessed at GCSAR laboratories, using SPSS statical analysis.

The results showed a considerable fluctuation in the content of considered greenhouse soils in terms of organic matter, K and Pb, ranging from very poor to very rich, but most soils had very good content. The study also showed that the content of most greenhouse soils with Cd was higher than the typical concentration, and 91.13% of these greenhouses had Cd concentration exceeding the normal level of agricultural soils. The situation was less severe for Cr, i.e. the percentage of greenhouses with Cr content higher than that of agricultural soils was 2.75%. However, no increase in the Ni and Co concentrations over the normal content of agricultural soils was observed.

A significant correlation between organic matter and total N, available Pb & K and Cd was observed, while it was insignificant for Cr, Ni and Co.

A poor correlation was observed between both Cr, Ni, Co and the studied indicators (organic matter, total N, available K and available Pb), all of which were insignificant, while it was significant between Cd & Pb and Cd & total N.