Environmental Geochemistry of Heavy Metals: Contamination, Impacts, and Countermeasure Strategies
A special issue of Minerals (ISSN 2075-163X). This special issue belongs to the section "Environmental Mineralogy and Biogeochemistry".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 29 August 2025 | Viewed by 2269
Special Issue Editors
Interests: environmental remediation; arsenic; acid mine drainage; abandoned mine site; naturally occurring heavy metals; water quality; geo-environment; heavy metals contamination
Interests: environmental science; geochemistry; environmental remediation; restoration technology; acid mine drainage; abandoned mine site; naturally occurring heavy metals; water quality; geo-environment; heavy metals contamination; bioaccessibility of heavy metals
Interests: earth resource engineering; civil engineering (environmental systems); environmental assessment; acid mine drainage; groundwater and soil contamination; toxic elements
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Environmental degradation from industrialization is often inevitable due to the release of heavy metals from mine wastes, tailings, slags, excavated rocks from tunnel construction, civil engineering works, and mineral processing facilities. These heavy metals, whether naturally occurring or anthropogenic sources, can be released into the environment through acid mine or rock drainage when exposed to oxidative conditions. Metals such as lead, zinc, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury persist in the environment, accumulating in soils and water bodies, and eventually entering the food chain. This contamination process poses significant risks to ecosystems and human health. Therefore, understanding the environmental geochemistry of these metals is crucial for effective countermeasures.
In this Special Issue, we aim to provide an update on novel advances focusing on environmental geochemistry of heavy metals and countermeasure strategies. This Special Issue will cover metal and potentially toxic elements in water, soil, and groundwater, highlighting the latest progress in the following areas:
- Multi-Element Analysis: understanding inter-element relationships in various compartments, their geochemical behavior, and implications for contamination.
- Sources and Pathways: examining their sources, contamination levels, and the pathways through which they enter and persist in the environment.
- Advances in Analysis Methods: quantifying heavy metals in various environmental matrices and investigating the interactions between contaminants and soil components, including batch sorption analysis and column tests.
- Environmental Monitoring and Countermeasure: exploring novel countermeasure techniques and monitoring strategies to mitigate the impact of heavy metal contamination on ecosystems and human health.
This Special Issue seeks to continuously expand the scope of knowledge and innovation in addressing the complex challenges posed by heavy metal contamination.
Dr. Takahiko Arima
Dr. Walubita Mufalo
Prof. Dr. Toshifumi Igarashi
Guest Editors
Manuscript Submission Information
Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.
Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Minerals is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.
Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.
Keywords
- potentially toxic elements
- soil pollution sources and assessment
- groundwater contamination
- geochemistry of heavy metals
- trace element speciation and mobility
- acid mine drainage
- environmental remediation and monitoring
- naturally occurring heavy metals
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