Assessment of Heavy metal(loid)s Pollution in Urban Soil at Street Tree Planting Sites in Chuncheon

Abstract

Urban soil provides various ecosystem services such as biomass production, climate regulation, carbonstorage, nutrient, and water cycling for human society but urban soil is threatened by pollution, compaction,sealing, and decline in organic matter. Especially urban soil near the road can be contaminated bytraffic-related emissions. Thus, this study assessed the contamination level of heavy metal(loid)s in urban soilat the street tree planting sites. For this, soil samples were collected from 26 urban tree-planting sites, 23agricultural areas, and 26 forest areas in Chuncheon city and analyzed using the standard procedures forphysicochemical properties and total heavy metal(loid)s concentrations. The urban soils had low clay contentsand CEC and high sand contents, indicating low retention of heavy metal(loid)s. However, urban soil Cu andZn concentrations were higher than agricultural and forest soils and their concentrations had a strong positivelinear correlation. This indicates that Cu and Zn could have a common source such as vehicles. Consequently,some traffic-related heavy metals, in particular Cu and Zn, were being accumulated in the urban soil at streettree planting sites, which may warrant some caution regarding the environment issues in the future.