Although widely reported, studies on chemical forms and concentrations of heavy metals in polluted soils and their effects upon ecosystems are still not much emphasized in the tropics. The present study was developed in a waste area of a zinc processing industry owned by the Companhia Mineira de Metais-CMM at Três Marias (MG), Brazil, to evaluate heavy metal quantities and forms in seven representative sites, selected according to differences in form of contamination, pedological aspects, topography and current vegetation status. Chemical analyses were carried out using a fractionation scheme as well as simple extractions using DTPA and Mehlich-1, aiming to determine the metal concentrations and forms on the surface and deep layers in order to make inferences about the environmental risk potential of these elements. Total element contents in the top layer were 13,533 mg kg-1 for Zn, 170 for Cd, 865 for Cu and 612 for Pb. The exchangeable form (MgCl2-extraction) in the top layers varied from 231 to 1,407 mg kg-1 for Zn, 14 to 390 for Cd and from 11 to 33 for Pb; Cu was rarely found in exchangeable form. The data show excessive amounts of these metals in the soil, therefore indicating the high degree of pollution in most of the sites studied. In some sites contamined by runoff, seepage and slow movement of soil material and residue, metal pollution is more evident in superficial layers. A higher proportion of exchangeable Zn was found at all levels at the ustulation site than in the other sites. Exchangeable Cd was also found in high concentrations in other sites, thus offering high environmental contamination risk. In general, Zn occurred mainly as carbonate and residual forms, whereas Cd predominated in exchangeable form and Cu and Pb in residual form. The metals extracted by Mehlich-1 and DTPA were significantly correlated with the sum of the extractions by MgCl2 and NaOAc obtained from the fractionation scheme for almost all the analyzed elements. This encourages future studies on extractors aiming at the evaluation of metals potentially available in the environment.
heavy metal; chemical fractionation; soil pollution; contaminants; soil degradation