Simulação do transporte vertical de zinco, chumbo e cobre em solos contaminados

Abstract

The environmental contamination by metallic trace elements is a problem that is getting worse around the world due to the growth and the technologic development of the humanity. Among the main sources of this kind of contamination are the atmospheric deposition of particles in soils located around industrial complexes and the prolonged and concentrated application of organic wastes in the soil. When present at the soil surface, these elements will migrate in depth and may reach the subsurface water bodies, causing their contamination. This study aimed to use the software Hydrus-2D to simulate the vertical redistribution of zinc, lead and copper in soil profiles contaminated by air pollution or by the application of swine liquid manure as well the transfer of these metallic trace elements into the groundwater. Chemical models were used under different hypotheses of reactivity of these elements with the soil particles and the physical, hidric and chemical characteristics of each soil profile. In the attempt to validate these models, it was simulated the vertical transports of zinc and lead, between 1900 and 2000, at three uses of a soil in northern France and of zinc and copper, between 2000 and 2008, at a soil profile located in Santa Maria RS, Brazil. Using a two sites chemical model with the kinetic constant decreased to 1% of the value measured in the laboratory, the simulations of the vertical transport of the metallic trace elements were validated in all soil profiles. This model was able to redistribute efficiently these elements in the profile, according their concentrations determined in situ. It was also predicted that the transfer of these contaminants do not represent, until now, any risk of pollution of the groundwater. Even with the continued application of high doses of swine liquid manure until 2058, the predicted increasing of zinc and copper concentrations in soil solution will not represent a risk of subsurface waters pollution. However, the model estimated that copper will be accumulated on the surface of this profile in greater quantities than zinc, increasing its concentration to levels above the value of intervention to agricultural areas. It was concluded that Hydrus-2D was a useful tool in detecting and/or forecasting environmental problems arising from the accumulation of metallic trace elements in soil and its leaching to the subsurface water bodies.