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Adsorption of Copper and Lead by Ap and B2 Horizons of Several Northeastern United States Soils
Author(s) -
Harter Robert D.
Publication year - 1979
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1979.03615995004300040010x
Subject(s) - adsorption , vermiculite , soil water , chemistry , langmuir , copper , organic matter , environmental chemistry , mineralogy , soil science , geology , organic chemistry , paleontology
Adsorption of Cu and Pb by surface and subsurface samples of fifteen soils was ascertained. Soil adsorption maxima were derived from the reciprocal of the slope obtained by a least squares fit of “Langmuir” plots for each soil. The adsorption maxima were then regressed against various chemical and mineralogical properties of the soils in an attempt to deduce mechanisms of adsorption as well as to determine whether any commonly measured soil quantity could serve as a predictor of adsorption. The best predictor of adsorption by all samples was sum of bases, which explained 84 and 76% of the variation in Cu and Pb adsorption, respectively. In the subsurface horizons, the adsorption of both Cu and Pb was significantly related to vermiculite content ( r 2 = 0.78 and 0.85, respectively), but sum of bases was still a better prediction for these horizons alone ( r 2 = 0.83 and 0.92, respectively). Organic matter content had no significant relationship to adsorption by surface horizons.