HEAVY METALS ABUNDANCE IN THE SOILS OF THE PANTELIMON – BRĂNEŞTI AREA, ILFOV COUNTYa) CADMIUM, COBALT, CHROMIUM, COPPER

More than 20 years later, a new research on heavy metals (cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper) contents in the soil cover of the Pantelimon – Brănesti area located East of the Bucharest Municipality and exposed for several decades to the influence of industrial emissions from two non-ferrous metallurgy plants is presented. A 5,912.72 ha area was investigated, 544 samples taken by geometric horizons (0-20; 20-40; 40-60 cm) from 215 points have been analyzed. The dominant soils are: Preluvosols, Chernozems, Phaeozems. The analytical data showed that all the heavy metals contents are below the maximum allowable limits and of the alarm thresholds. Higher cadmium and copper concentrations have been registered in the 40-60 cm layer and higher chromium and copper concentrations in the 0-20 cm layer. Cadmium and cobalt distributions are non-central, with a right asymmetry, and the chromium and copper ones are slightly symmetric. The surface distribution of the heavy metals shows the presence of some high contents areas distributed insularly, with a higher frequency around the industrial units. The geochemical abundance indexes are higher than 1 for cadmium and lower for cobalt, chromium, and copper, and the pedo-geochemical abundance indexes are lower than 1 only for chromium.