Current Status of Some Micro-Nutrients and Heavy Metals of Al-Hawawer Valley Soils of Marsa Matrouh – Egypt

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Soil Physics and Chemistry Department, Water Resources and Desert Soils Division, Desert Research Center, El-Matariya 11753, Cairo, Egypt

2 Soil Physics and Chemistry Department, Water Resources andDesert Soils Division, Desert Research Center, El-Matariya 11753, Cairo, Egypt

Abstract

The present study was focused on the current status of some micro-nutrients such as  (Fe, Mn, Zn, and Cu) and some heavy metals such as (Pb, Co, and Ni) representing Wadi Al-Hawawer area that located at Marsa Matrouh Governorate, Egypt. The obtained results illustrated that the vertical distribution of total concentrations of Fe were decreased with increasing profile depth. However, the available concentrations of Fe were oscillated in different soil profiles. Also, the released percentage of Fe tended to decrease with depth. The released percentages of Mn in different soil profile were found to be between 0.66% and 1.66 %, respectively. The distribution of total concentrations of Mn in different soil profiles tended to be osculated with depth. The available concentrations of Zn in different soil profiles were between 2.15 mg/kg and 3.95 mg/kg in the deepest layer of profile No. 3 and in the second and last layer of profile No. 1, respectively.  Generally, micro-nutrients concentrations in the studied soil profile were found to take the following sequence Fe > Mn > Zn > Cu, and the available concentrationsof micro-nutrients in the studied soil profile were found to take the same tendency.  However, the released percentages of micro- nutrients took the following order Cu > Fe > Mn > Zn. The released percentages of Pb in different soil profiles were between 2.98% to 6.67 % in the deepest layer of soil profiles No. 4 and 6 and the top surface of soil profile No. 3, respectively. The vertical distribution of available concentration of Co tended to osculate with increasing depth.  The released percentages of Co were between 0.07% to 0.89% in the surface layer of soil profile No. 1 and 3, respectively. The vertical distribution of total concentration of Ni tended to increase with increasing soil depth in soil profiles No. 3, 4, and 5 respectively and vice versa with soil profiles numbers 1, 2, and 6, respectively. 
 

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