Assessment of Soil Solution Chemicals after Tannery Effluents Disposal

Abstract

Knowledge about soil solution chemicals is important for assessing their mobility, availability, migration to groundwater and toxicity to plants. The objective of this study was to apply factor analysis to data obtained on soil solution chemicals during a one-year monitoring program in a controlled experiment with tannery effluents disposed on the soil surface, to extract information on their relationship and identify the main contaminants. Seventeen chemical parameters were monitored at six different depths on soil profile, focusing on metals and nitrate in soil solution. Four Factors accounted for 79.20% of the total variance, of which the most important were: Factor 1 (48.35%) showed significant loadings for Mn²⁺, Na⁺, K⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Cl^-, Pb²⁺ and electric conductivity, strongly influenced by high load effluent disposal; Factor 2 (12.21%) was related with SO4²⁺, Factor 3 (10.16%) associated with Cu²⁺ and Zn²⁺ and Factor 4 (8.49%) associated with nitrogen mineralization dynamics after high disposal.