Assessment of heavy metal pollution in Xuzhou urban topsoils by magnetic susceptibility measurements

The concentrations of four selected heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Ni and Cr) were measured on 167 topsoil samples collected from the city of Xuzhou, China via inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP-MS). It was found that Pb and Zn were principally derived from anthropogenic inputs whereas Cr and Ni distributions were mainly controlled by parent materials. The spatial distribution patterns of Pb, and Zn were similar to that from low field magnetic susceptibility (chi lf), suggesting interaction among them. Two threshold values for magnetic susceptibility and frequency-dependent susceptibility percentage (chi fd) were applied to discriminate between polluted and unpolluted samples according to their magnetic susceptibility, resulting in 109 samples populating the "polluted" subset. The Pb and Zn concentrations of the "polluted" subset were statistically significantly higher than those measured in the "unpolluted" one. The heavy metal concentrations were also investigated varying the magnetic susceptibility thresholds to change the "polluted" subset. (c) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.