Early efforts at remediation of contaminated soils involve overturn or removal of the uppermost soil horizons. We find that such disruption is counterproductive, as it actually increases the mobility of the heavy metals involved. In our study, we sought to replicate in a controlled manner this commonly used remediation strategy and measure Pb, Zn, Cu and As concentrations in all soil horizons-both prior to and 1 year after disruption by trenching. BCR analyses (sequential leaching) indicate that Pb is affected to the greatest degree and is most highly mobile; however, Zn and As remain insoluble, thus partially ameliorating the detrimental effect. Differences in vegetation cover (i.e. spruce vs. beech forest) have little influence on overall element mobility patterns. The Krušné hory (Ore Mts., Czech Republic) study area is one of the more heavily contaminated areas in Central Europe, and thus the results reported here are applicable to areas affected by brown-coal-burning power plants.

• Keywords
• BCR sequential extraction, Contamination, Forest soils, Hazardous elements, Mobility, Načetín,
• MeSH
• Acid Rain analysis   statistics & numerical data   MeSH
• Soil Pollutants analysis   MeSH
• Forests MeSH
• Environmental Monitoring * MeSH
• Lead analysis   MeSH
• Soil chemistry   MeSH
• Metals, Heavy analysis   MeSH
• Zinc analysis   MeSH
• Environmental Pollution analysis   statistics & numerical data   MeSH
• Publication type
• Journal Article MeSH
• Geographicals
• Czech Republic MeSH
• Europe MeSH
• Names of Substances
• Acid Rain MeSH
• Soil Pollutants MeSH
• Lead MeSH
• Soil MeSH
• Metals, Heavy MeSH
• Zinc MeSH