Soil contamination by trace elements and radioelements and related environmental risks in agricultural soils of the M’Dhilla Basin (southwestern Tunisia)

• DOI: 10.1007/s10661-024-13202-z
• Publication Date: 2024-10-07T03:12:13Z
• Authors: Naima Hidouri; Zouhour Moussaoui; Noomene Sleimi; Younes Hamed; Fadoua Hamzaoui-A...
• Keywords: Soil; Tunisia; Soil Pollutants; Soil Pollutants, Radioactive; Agriculture; Trace Elements; Environmental Monitoring

Agricultural soil contaminated by phosphogypsum pile stocked in plan air remains a major problem in M'Dhilla city southwestern of Tunisia. The present effort aimed to enhance the knowledge of trace elements and radioactivity abundance and to assess the corresponding environment. X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy was used to evaluate the trace elements, radioactive elements, and major element concentrations. Our finding revealed that the mean values of U and Th in all the soil profiles ranged from 0.283 to 2.875 mg.kg-1 and from 0.797 to 1.491 mg.kg-1 respectively. The statistical analyses indicated that uranium abundance has non-significant correlation with the most of trace metals; it shows a moderate correlated with Sr and inverse correlation with P2O5. Contamination factors indicate that the studied soil ranged from uncontaminated to significantly contaminated. Thus, the pollution load index values classify the sites from background values to high pollution sites. The findings of this study will help improve the environmental conditions of M'Dhilla city by addressing contamination issues through targeted interventions. The study's findings highlight the importance of a periodic environmental monitoring such as soil remediation in the study area. This research fills a critical gap in the current understanding of contamination management in this region.