| Abstract: | The soil accumulation of metals and other elements as a result of human activities is a global concern. This investigation involves the use of commercially available extractions to estimate elemental abundance and availability. The need exists, especially in poor nations, to have cost-effective analytical capabilities to perform an initial screening of a soil resource to determine if a problem exists. Three extraction protocols are proposed: (i) an aqua regia digestion to estimate a baseline geochemistry, (ii) a pyrophosphate extraction to estimate elemental abundances associated with the soil organic fraction, and (iii) a water extraction to estimate the most available fraction. If the soil resource is impacted, then more refined and traditional methods are required to document the extent of impact for possible remediation. The three extraction protocols were applied to soils with little impact to illustrate the assessment potential for selected metals and p-block elements. |
