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Special Issue "Geochemistry of Landscape and Soil"

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A special issue of Water (ISSN 2073-4441). This special issue belongs to the section "Soil and Water".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (28 March 2022) | Viewed by 17772

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Nikolay Kasimov

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Guest Editor

Department of Landscape Geochemistry and Soil Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian
Interests: landscape geochemistry; geochemical barriers; heavy metals and metalloids; soil catena; elements partitioning; aquatic systems; road dust
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Prof. Dr. Tatiana Minkina

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Guest Editor

Head of Department of Soil Science, Academy of Biology and Biotechnology, Southern Federal University, Stachki Ave. 194/1, 344090 Rostov-on-Don, Russia
Interests: soil science; biogeochemistry of trace elements; environmental soil chemistry; soil monitoring; assessment; modeling and remediation using physicochemical treatment methods
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Dr. Ivan Semenkov

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Guest Editor

Department of Landscape Geochemistry and Soil Geography, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Moscow, Russia
Interests: landscape geochemistry; partition; environmental impact of space transportation; hyperaccumulator plant species; soil microbiome; heavy metals
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Dr. Carla Sofia Santos Ferreira

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Guest Editor

Department of Physical Geography and Bolin Centre for Climate Research, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Interests: land degradation; soil quality; water quality; surface hydrology; nature-based solutions
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Climate change and environmental pollution affect the equilibrium that has developed over a long period of time in the biosphere. Landscapes are an interface layer between the atmosphere, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the biosphere, and humans. Soils as a reflection of the landscape are at the forefront of these interactions, as they play an integral and decisive role in the provision of numerous ecosystem services. The unceasing development of advanced analytical techniques continues to change how questions on soil geochemistry and structure can be addressed, from nano- and micro-scales to the landscape and catchment scale.

This Special Issue of Water, entitled “Geochemistry of Landscape and Soil”, welcomes papers that describe field, experimental, and modeling studies related to the natural and human-caused balance of substances in the system “rocks–soils–aerosols–surface waters–bottom sediments–biota–people" and the adaptation of soils and landscapes to changing environments.

Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

an interdisciplinary understanding of how soils and landscapes function as media that provide for the migration and accumulation of substances;
adaptation of the migration and accumulation of substances to changing environments in landscapes and soils;
processes and mechanisms by which soils react to, and interact with, changes imposed by the wider environment or by direct human intervention (e.g., climate change, land-use, or management practice);
human health in connection with soils and landscapes: hidden hunger, endemic diseases, environmental pollution, etc.;
novel approaches, techniques, and methods for obtaining a new understanding of geochemical Earth-surface processes, especially in landscape catenas and river basins;
geochemical partition of heavy metals and metalloids in landscapes and soils; and
geochemical mitigation of soil and landscape degradation and enhancements in the supply of ecosystem services.

Prof. Dr. Nikolay Kasimov
Prof. Dr. Tatiana Minkina
Dr. Ivan Semenkov
Dr. Carla Sofia Santos Ferreira
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. Water is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly 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 2200 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

environmental geochemistry
soil pollution
catena
potentially toxic elements
hidden hunger
endemic diseases
earth-surface processes
partition
landscape degradation
ecosystem services

Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Pollution Level, Partition and Spatial Distribution of Benzo(a)pyrene in Urban Soils, Road Dust and Their PM₁₀ Fraction of Health-Resorts (Alushta, Yalta) and Industrial (Sebastopol) Cities of Crimea

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Water 2022, 14(4), 561; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14040561 - 12 Feb 2022

Cited by 6 | Viewed by 1780

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), in particular benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), are priority organic pollutants coming from various anthropogenic sources. The levels of accumulation and the spatial distribution of BaP in urban soils, road dust and their PM₁₀ particles (with a diameter of less than 10 microns) were for the first time determined for various land use zones and roads of different size in the cities of Crimea—Alushta, Yalta and Sebastopol. The average content of BaP in soils and road dust in Alushta is 60 and 97 ng/g, in Yalta—139 and 64 ng/g, in Sebastopol—260 and 89 ng/g, respectively, which considerably exceeds the background level (1 ng/g). The BaP concentrations in PM₁₀ particles of soils and dust are up to 11 and four times higher, respectively, than the total contents; they concentrate 35–70% of amount of the pollutant. The accumulation of BaP in soils and dust depends on the type of land use and size of roads. The exceedance of BaP standards in soils and road dust indicates a hazardous environmental situation in three cities of Crimea. The most dangerous are PM₁₀ particles, which form anomalies with extreme levels of BaP contamination. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geochemistry of Landscape and Soil)

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Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Geochemical Partitioning of Heavy Metals and Metalloids in the Ecosystems of Abandoned Mine Sites: A Case Study within the Moscow Brown Coal Basin

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Water 2022, 14(1), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/w14010113 - 05 Jan 2022

Cited by 3 | Viewed by 1357

Abstract

Significant environmental impacts of mining activities connected with high-sulfur materials result from the production of acid mine drainage and potentially toxic elements, which easily migrate to adjacent ecosystems due to the typical absence of vegetation on spoil heaps and toeslope talus mantle. In this paper, we present the results of the first comprehensive study of the ecosystems affected by acidic and metal-enriched (Al, Ca, Co, Cu, Fe, Mg, Mn, Ni, and Zn) mine drainage conducted at spoil heaps and adjacent talus mantle under semihumid climate conditions within the Moscow Brown Coal Basin (Central Russian Upland, Tula Region, Russia). A total of 162 samples were collected, including 98 soil samples, 42 surface water samples, and 22 plant samples (aerial tissues of birch). Coal talus mantle materials of Regosols were characterized by the increased concentration of water-soluble Ca, K, Mg, and S, and all mobile fractions of Al, Co, S, and Zn. The chemical composition of birch samples within the zones affected by acid mine drainage differed insignificantly from those in the unpolluted ecosystems with black soils, due to the high tolerance of birch to such conditions. Differences between the affected and undisturbed sites in terms of the chemical composition decreased in the following order: waters > soils > plants. The geochemical characterization of plants and soils in coal mining areas is essential for the mitigation of negative consequences of mining activities. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geochemistry of Landscape and Soil)

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Open AccessArticle

Optical, Geochemical and Mineralogical Characteristics of Light-Absorbing Impurities Deposited on Djankuat Glacier in the Caucasus Mountains

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Water 2021, 13(21), 2993; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13212993 - 22 Oct 2021

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1503

Abstract

Supra-glacial material, including light-absorbing impurities (LAI) such as mineral dust of crustal and soil origin, black carbon, algae and cryoconite, reduce the reflectance of snow and glacier ice. The reduction depends on the amount of LAI and their physical and chemical properties, which vary spatially and temporally. Spectral reflectance data and snow and ice samples, containing LAI, were collected in the ablation zone of the Djankuat Glacier, Central Caucasus, Russia. The spectra of the samples containing mineral dust transported from deserts were characterized by negative visible near-infrared gradients and were different from the spectra of clean aged snow and exposed glacier ice and from the samples containing mineral dust produced locally. Geochemical and mineralogical analysis using X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence spectrometry showed that samples containing desert dust were characterised by a high proportion of clay materials and such minerals as smectites, illite–smectites and palygorskite and by a smaller size of mineral particles. They were enriched in chromium, zinc and vanadium. The latter served as an indicator of dust transport over or origin from the oil-producing regions of the Middle East. There was a strong negative correlation between the amount of organic matter and mineral dust in the collected samples and the albedo of surfaces from which the samples were collected. The results suggested that organic matter reduced albedo more efficiently than mineral dust. The study highlighted the importance of supra-glacial material in changing the surface reflectivity of snow and glaciers in the Caucasus region. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geochemistry of Landscape and Soil)

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Open AccessEditor’s ChoiceArticle

Migration of ²³⁸U and ²²⁶Ra Radionuclides in Technogenic Permafrost Taiga Landscapes of Southern Yakutia, Russia

Aleksandr Chevychelov

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Water 2021, 13(7), 966; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13070966 - 31 Mar 2021

Viewed by 1428

Abstract

This article describes the features and migration patterns of natural long-lived heavy radionuclides ²³⁸U and ²²⁶Ra in the major components of the environment including rocks, river waters, soils, and vegetation of permafrost taiga landscapes of Southern Yakutia, which helped us to understand the scale and levels of their radioactive contamination. Different methods have been used in this study to determine the content of ²³⁸U and ²²⁶Ra in various samples, including gamma-ray spectrometry, X-ray spectroscopy, laser excited luminescence, and emanation method. It was determined that the main source of radioactive pollution of soil and vegetation cover, as well as surface waters in these technogenic landscapes, are the dumps of radioactive rock that were formed here as the result of geological exploration carried out in this area during the last third of the 20th century. The rocks studied were initially characterized by a coarse, mainly stony gravelly composition and contrasting radiation parameters, where the gamma radiation exposure rate varied between 1.71 and 16.7 µSv/h, and the contents of ²³⁸U and ²²⁶Ra were within the range 126–1620 mg/kg and 428–5508 × 10⁻⁷ mg/kg, respectively, and the ²²⁶Ra: ²³⁸U ratio was 1.0. This ratio shifted later on from the equilibrium state towards the excess of either ²³⁸U or ²²⁶Ra, due to the processes of air, water, and biogenic migration. Two types of ²³⁸U and ²²⁶Ra radionuclides migration were observed in studied soils, namely aerotechnogenic and hydrotechnogenic, each of which results in a different intraprofile radionuclide distribution and different levels of radioactive contamination. In this study, we also identified plants capable of selective accumulation of certain radionuclides, including Siberian mountain ash (Sorbus sibiricus), which selectively absorbs ²²⁶Ra, and terrestrial green and aquatic mosses, which accumulate significant amounts of ²³⁸U. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geochemistry of Landscape and Soil)

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Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

The Morphological and Functional Organization of Cattails Typha laxmannii Lepech. and Typha australis Schum. and Thonn. under Soil Pollution by Potentially Toxic Elements

Tatiana Minkina

Grigoriy Fedorenko

Dina Nevidomskaya

Elizaveta Konstantinova

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Water 2021, 13(2), 227; https://doi.org/10.3390/w13020227 - 18 Jan 2021

Cited by 8 | Viewed by 2088

Abstract

The aim of this study is to investigate the adaptation of two species of cattail Typha australis Schum. and Thonn. and Typha laxmannii Lepech. based on analysis of the morphological and anatomical features of their vegetative and generative organs to soil pollution with potentially toxic elements (PTE) in the riparian zones of the sea edge of the Don River delta (Southern Russia). Both species of the cattail are able to accumulate high concentrations of Ni, Zn, Cd, Pb and can be used for phytoremediation of polluted territories. The pattern of PTE accumulation in hydrophytes has changed on polluted soils of coastal areas from roots/rhizomes > inflorescences > stems to roots/rhizomes > stems ≥ inflorescences. The comparative morphological and anatomical analysis showed a statistically significant effect of the environmental stress factor by the type of proliferation in T. australis, and species T. laxmannii was visually in a depressed, deformed state with mass manifestations of hypogenesis. These deformations should be considered, on one hand, as adaptive, but on the other, as pathological changes in the structure of the spikes of the cattails. Light-optical and electron microscopic studies have shown that the degree and nature of ultrastructural changes in cattails at the same level of soil pollution are different and most expressed in the assimilation tissue of leaves. However, these changes were destructive for T. australis, but for T. laxmannii, these indicated a high level of adaptation to the prolonged technogenic impact of PTE. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geochemistry of Landscape and Soil)

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Open AccessArticle

Investigation into Freezing Point Depression in Soil Caused by NaCl Solution

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Water 2020, 12(8), 2232; https://doi.org/10.3390/w12082232 - 08 Aug 2020

Cited by 10 | Viewed by 8210

Abstract

Engineering practices illustrate that the water phase change in soil causes severe damage to roads, canals, airport runways and other buildings. The freezing point is an important indicator to judge whether the soil is frozen or not. Up to now, the influence of salt on the freezing point is still not well described. To resolve this problem, a series of freezing point tests for saline soil were conducted in the laboratory. Based on the relationship between the freezing point and the water activity, a thermodynamic model considering the excess Gibbs energy was proposed for predicting the freezing point of saline soil by inducing the UNIQUAC (universal quasi-chemical) model. The experimental results show that the initial water content has little influence on the freezing point if the initial water content is higher than the critical water content, while the freezing point decreases with the decrease of the water content if the initial water content is lower than the critical water content. Moreover, it is found that the freezing point is related to the energy status of liquid water in saline soils and it decreases with the increase of the salt concentration. Moreover, the freezing point depression of saline soil is mainly caused by the decrease of water activity. Compared with the other two terms, the residual term, accounting for the molecular interactions, has an obvious influence on the water activity. This result is helpful for understanding how salt concentration affects the freezing point of saline soil and provides a reference for engineering construction in saline soil areas. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Geochemistry of Landscape and Soil)

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