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Article

Environmental Impact Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Soils Near the Runway at the International Airport in Central Europe

1
Institute of Chemistry and Technology of Environmental Protection, Faculty of Chemistry, Brno University of Technology, Purkyňova 118, 612 00 Brno, Czech Republic
2
Department of Agrochemistry, Soil Science, Microbiology and Plant Nutrition, Faculty of AgriSciences, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
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Department of Geology and Pedology, Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 3, 613 00 Brno, Czech Republic
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Faculty of Environmental Management and Agriculture, University of Warmia and Mazury in Olsztyn, Pl. Łódzki 4, 10-727 Olsztyn, Poland
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Institute of Environmental Engineering, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, 159 Nowoursynowska, 02–776 Warsaw, Poland
*
Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Sustainability 2020, 12(17), 7224; https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177224
Received: 17 August 2020 / Revised: 27 August 2020 / Accepted: 29 August 2020 / Published: 3 September 2020
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Toward Sustainability: Airport Risk Assessment)
The environmental impacts of air transport and air transportation systems have become increasingly important and are heavily debated. The aim of the study was to determine the degree of soil contamination by the potentially toxic elements (Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in the vicinity of the airport runway and to evaluate whether airport traffic has had factual toxic effects on airport vegetation. The overall assessment of soil contamination by means of the Nemerow integrated pollution index indicated slight pollution; evaluation by the geoaccumulation index evinced moderate contamination by Zn and nonexistent to moderate contamination by Cu, Ni, and Pb. A significant difference between the take-off and landing sections of the runway was not statistically confirmed. The vegetation risk assessment by means of the potential ecological risk index (RI) showed the low ecological risk, while the phytotoxicity test revealed an inhibition of up to 33.7%, with a slight inhibition of 16.7% on average, and thus low toxic effects of airport traffic on airport vegetation. The results of the linear regression model between phytotoxicity and RI manifested no relation between the two. The outcomes from other studies suggest that the range of elements and the extent of contamination can be highly variable at different airports and frequently affected by car traffic. Therefore, further research on this issue is needed for the more precise determination of the elements emitted by air traffic at airports. View Full-Text
Keywords: air transport; soil contamination; ecological risk assessment; eco-toxicology study; phytotoxicity air transport; soil contamination; ecological risk assessment; eco-toxicology study; phytotoxicity
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MDPI and ACS Style

Brtnický, M.; Pecina, V.; Baltazár, T.; Vašinová Galiová, M.; Baláková, L.; Bęś, A.; Radziemska, M. Environmental Impact Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Soils Near the Runway at the International Airport in Central Europe. Sustainability 2020, 12, 7224. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177224

AMA Style

Brtnický M, Pecina V, Baltazár T, Vašinová Galiová M, Baláková L, Bęś A, Radziemska M. Environmental Impact Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Soils Near the Runway at the International Airport in Central Europe. Sustainability. 2020; 12(17):7224. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177224

Chicago/Turabian Style

Brtnický, Martin, Václav Pecina, Tivadar Baltazár, Michaela Vašinová Galiová, Ludmila Baláková, Agnieszka Bęś, and Maja Radziemska. 2020. "Environmental Impact Assessment of Potentially Toxic Elements in Soils Near the Runway at the International Airport in Central Europe" Sustainability 12, no. 17: 7224. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12177224

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