Heavy metals distribution maps

The 1988 mapping program in the Arkona Basin was mainly aimed to investigate the content and distribution patterns of heavy metals in surface sediments of the area. On the basis of early activities of the HELCOM and ICES (e.g., Perttila and Brugmann, 1992) trace elements and especially heavy metals were just in the scientific focus of that time because of their partly toxic properties and enrichment tendency in the food chain. Thus, one of the most important tasks of the new study in 2005 was to evaluate the development of heavy metal distribution patterns in the sediments. 

Data analysis, using elementary statistics and Kriging techniques [23] in the construction of the geochemical maps enables an understanding of the heavy metal distribution and the origin of the regional pollution. 

The receptors of interest are soils of agricultural (arable lands, grasslands) and non-agricultural (forests, steppes, heath lands, savanna, etc.) ecosystems. In non-agricultural ecosystems, the atmospheric deposition is the only input of heavy metals. Regarding the Forest ecosystems, a distinction should at least be made between Coniferous and Deciduous Forest ecosystems. When detailed information on the areal distribution of various tree species (e.g., pine, fir, spruce, oak, beech and birch) is available, this should be used since tree species influence the deposition and uptake of heavy metals and the precipitation excess. On a world scale, soil types can be best distinguished on the basis of the FAO-UNESCO Soil Map of the World, climate and ecosystem data from NASA database (1989). 

An earlier study on the speciation of heavy metals and geochemical mapping of the total metal content of the surface soils of Delhi7 showed the total Al content to vary between 1.87 to 5.34% with a mean of 3.57%. In view of the above, the objective of this research was to ascertain primarily the status of Aluminum in Delhi soils by studying its chemical speciation in the soil profile in order to improve the understanding of its distribution in the solid-phase pool of the soil. More precisely, the objectives were ... 

Like conventional XRF, the beam size of SRXRF has also been adjusted from macro to micro level, and it is entering the nano-probe age. Meanwhile, SRXRF has the advantages of tunable energy and adjustable beam size, which benefit the detection of some heavy metals with good sensitivity in micro- or even smaller structure. At present, SRXRF has successfully mapped the elemental distribution in plant and animal tissues, even for a single cell, and is closely involved in many flelds such as environment science and life science. In this section, some practical examples will be given to show the applications of SRXRF in the above-mentioned flelds. 

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