Original Articles: 2016 Vol: 8 Issue: 5
Co-Relation and Variability of Metal in Surface Soil of Rapidly Industrialized Area of Rohtak District
Abstract
Heavy metal concentration in soil of industrial area of Rohtak District was measured to access the soil quality and statistical methods were applied for comparing heavy metal accumulation. Soil samples from different sites of industrial area, Hisar Road Rohtak were analyzed by atomic absorption spectrophotometer to find concentration of selected heavy metal namely: Cu, Zn, Pb, Cd and Ni. Optimized the instrument settings and nebulizer controls for each element so that characteristic concentration of metal is ± 20 % of manufacturer specifications, precision of 10 measurements is ≤5% (preferably ≤2%) the optimization process. A coefficient of variance of replicates was less than 2% for all elements. PCA shows first three components of 10 assessed contribute for 62.71% of overall variability in data. PC1 shows high loading of pH, TDS, conductivity and Cd which was might be due to anthropogenic or industrial and traffic activities; PC2 shows high loading of Pb, Zn, and Ni and moderately loaded by Cu which was might be due to geogenic sources and supplemented by solid waste disposed by industries.; PC3 shows high loading of Zn, Cu which was due to variation in geochemical nature of the soil. The most likely source for accumulation of heavy metal in soil near to industries was local industrial activities supplemented by vehicular emissions. The Pearson correlation coefficients of these metal under p < 0.01, such as Pb, Zn, Cd, Ni and Cu suggests that contamination takes place due to anthropogenic activities besides the natural components of the soil. There is positive correlation between few metal like Pb (r=0.383, p=0.01), Cd (r=0.397, p=0.01) with pH of the soil. A significant positive correlation (P ≤ 0.001) between metal and different parameters in our case further substantiates this view.