Relationship between magnetic parameters and heavy element contents of arable soil around a steel company, Nanjing

Abstract: Magnetic parameters and element contents were determined in core NJ008 collected from the uppermost ca. 40 cm in a steel company in southwest Nanjing. The results showed that magnetic susceptibility (χ), saturation isothermal remanent magnetization (SIRM) and anhysteretic remanent magnetization (ARM) were enhanced in the uppermost 20 cm, with a mean magnetic susceptibility value of 112.5×10⁻⁸ m³ kg⁻¹. Below 20 cm, χ decreased sharply with a mean value of 27.8×10⁻⁸m³ kg⁻¹. Low-coercivity minerals such as magnetite dominate in arable soils, while the relative content of antiferromagnetic minerals increases below 20 cm. Heavy metals (Ni, Cu, Fe, Pb, V, and Zn) have similar vertical trends as χ. Principal component analysis reveals common high loadings of the same factor for magnetic concentration parameters ( χ, ARM, and SIRM) and elements (Ni, Cu, Fe, Pb, V, and Zn) with an excellent linear correlation (0.69⩽R⩽0.98) between them. Magnetic susceptibility of paddy soil core NJ013, which had the same parent material as NJ008 but was far from pollution sources, showed stable values of magnetic concentration parameters along the whole core. Absolute values correspond to the so-called magnetic background value (below 20 cm) of NJ008. This indicates that pesticide and fertilizer had little effect on magnetic signals of the upper part of core NJ008 and the extremely enhanced magnetic concentration parameters originate from the steel company emission. Although, the arable soil does not reveal the pollution history and transportation due to annual ploughing, the significant linear relationship between magnetic concentration parameters and heavy metal contents suggests that magnetic parameters can serve as a proxy for quickly detecting soil metallic pollution and estimating the extent of contamination.