Assessment of metal pollution in soil and in vegetation near the wild garbage dumps at Mostaganem region

Abstract

Within the scope of protection of the environment, and with particular aim the normalization of landfill sites, this study examines soil pollution and natural vegetation of the three sites near three major Wild discharges in the region of Mostaganem (western Algeria). The contamination of both soil and vegetation was evaluated by assaying the major metallic elements (K, Na, Ca, Al, Fe, Mg, Si, Mn) and heavy metals (Cr, Zn, Cu, Cd, Ni, Pb, As, Co). This work reveals significant contamination of the sites studied and it emphasized a large variation in concentration depending on the element analyzed and the study site. The pollution index of soil is generally very high (7.56 for SI, 7.32 to 7.84 for SII and SIII). The transfer factor (TF) of heavy metals in luxurious growing species was calculated, it reveals a bioaccumulation of metals, which varies according to plant species and nature of metals. The hyper accumulation (TF > 1) was registered for Ni, Cr, Cu, Zn in Euphorbia cyparissias L (1.82); Asparagus officinalis L (4.38); Marrubium vulgare L (8.08) and Pistacia lentiscus L (9.14) respectively. The accumulation was observed according to TF values below 1 for Cd, Pb, As and Co, in Euphorbia cyparissias L (0.27 for Cd);