Article published in Stoten on the input of trace metals in agricultural volcanic soils
- September 20th, 2014
- Biodiversity
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Was recently published in a scientific journal with international circulation (Science of the Total Environment) a study conducted by researchers from the Azorean Biodiversity Group (Patricia Garcia and Carolina Parelho), in collaboration with a researchers from CVARG (Armindo Rodrigues and José Virgilio Cruz) that reveals the impact of different types of farming practices (conventional, organic and traditional) in trace metal contamination in agricultural volcanic soils.
This study shows that the levels of vanadium, barium and mercury these soils are essentially of geogenic origin (ie, result from the parent rock), while the presence of elements like lithium, phosphorus, chromium, nickel, lead, among others, are anthropogenic (agricultural activities).
This work, pioneer for agricultural volcanic soils, makes possible to identify trace metals priority to the development of strategies and policies to alleviate the contamination of these soils.
Complete reference
Parelho, C., A.S. Rodrigues, J.V. Cruz & P. Garcia (2014). Linking trace metals and agricultural land use in volcanic soils — A multivariate approach. Science of the Total Environment, 496: 241–247