Redistribution of heavy metals and other elements in air-dry aggregates of trans-eluvial landscapes (on the example of UO PEC "Chashnikovo")

This study is focused on the erosion losses of heavy metals and other elements, as well as their redistribution in large soil aggregates. An erosion-prone slope in the zone of sod-podzolic soils (Educational and Experimental Soil and Ecological Center of Lomonosov Moscow State University "Chashnikovo") was selected as an object. In the selected samples, the gross content of the main soil trace elements and macroelements was determined using X-ray fluorescence analysis. It was noted that Zn, Sr, Fe and Rb were removed from the soil at the foot of the slope, moreover, these elements were mainly accumulated in aggregates 5‒2 mm in diameter. In turn, Zr, Nb, Ti, Cr, Al were also actively washed out at the foot of the slope, approximately equally distributed among all groups of aggregates. There are also elements for which the influence of the studied factors (location relative to the slope and size of aggregates) was not observed: Cu, Ni, Ga, As. A unique behavior was recorded for manganese, it is the only element for which an increase in the content was reliably recorded at the foot of the slope, moreover, in small aggregates <2 mm in diameter (p-value <0,05), the most prone to erosion washout. According to the results of dispersion and correlation analyses, we are assuming that erosion processes influence the distribution of zinc, strontium, chromium and manganese, and the distribution of other elements is influenced by the factor of parent material, anthropogenic input and/or podzolic process.