Heavy Metals Pollution Assessment in Agricultural Soils

Soil has always been important to humans and their health, providing a resource that can be used for different purposes soil significantly influences a variety of functions such as plant growth and the cycling of water that sustains the human population. Heterogeneity is an inherent property of soils. In a natural landscape, it represents a wide variety of soil attributes, both spatial and volumetric, as a result of interactions of the soil formation processes. Heavy metals are intrinsic constituents of the geologic environment¿ and many are essential to the enzymatic biological processes upon which life depends. However¿ society recently has come to recognize that chronic low concentration exposure to any heavy metals represents an environmental and human health risk. In particular¿ society¿s increasing dependence upon groundwater for drinking water supplies has focused interest on preventing or reducing contamination of aquifers used for potable supplies. Environmental contamination by heavy metals is relatively common.