Monitoring of ecological and geochemical state of the soil cover in the city of Voronezh

Soil cover in the city of Voronezh accumulates a lot of pollutants and indicates the centers of technological pollution. The high rates of housing construction, functioning and development of urban infrastructure cause infringement to the soil cover. The paper contains main results of an ecological and geochemical research of the soil cover in Voronezh, its characteristics, properties of the horizons of the different types of soils. During spring and summer of 2014 75 samples of soil were collected in special points of monitoring (according to GOST 17.4.3.01-83 and GOST 17.4.4.02-84). During the research the following methods were applied - volt-ampermetric method was used for detecting the concentration of heavy metals, the method of cholophorm-hexan extraction - for petrochemicals, the method of I.V. Tyurin - for humus concentration, potentiometric method and biotesting methods (analysis of seedlings of the following indicating plants - Lepidium sativum, Avena sativa, as well as defining the phytotoxic effect) - for actual acidity detection. The obtained results are used for creating an overview soil map of Voronezh. Urbanozems are dominating in the soil cover of Voronezh. There era large areas of them in the majority of the city districts. A smaller part of a total urban area is presented by soils, which are slightly touched by human economic activity. Urban soils of industrial and transport city zones have disadvantageous properties - low rate of humus and alkali reaction of soil environment, high rate of pollution by petrochemicals and heavy metals. The least rate of pollution of a soil cover by heavy metals is detected in residential areas, situated far from industrial objects and highways. We have detected dependence between accumulation of polluting substances in soil cover and functional and planning peculiarities of the city. For example, accumulation of zinc takes place in soils with alkali reaction of soil and low concentration of humus. The lowest rates are indicated in low-acid soils in recreational zones.