GEMAS: Spatial distribution of chemical elements in agricultural and grazing land soil of Italy

Cicchella, D.
Giaccio, L.
Albanese, S.
Lima, A.
Zuzolo, D.
Valera, P.
De Vivo, B.
DINELLI, ENRICO

Publication date

January 2015

DOI

10.1016/j.gexplo.2014.11.009

Abstract

This work was carried out as the Italian contribution to the EuroGeoSurveys GEMAS project, the objective of which was the geochemical characterisation of agricultural and grazing land soil in Europe. Soil samples were collected at an average sampling density of 1 site per 2500km2. Two different sample types were collected in Italy: (1) 121 samples of agricultural soil (Ap) on regularly ploughed land to a depth of 20cm, and (2) 121 samples of grazing land soil (Gr) (land under permanent grass cover) to a depth of 10cm. All soil samples were air dried, sieved to <2mm, homogenised and finally split into 10 sub-samples. Both sample types (Ap and Gr) were analysed after an aqua regia (AR) extraction by a combination of ICP-AES and ICP-MS for 53 ...