Abstract:
Soil heavy metals have been a very useful indicator of environmental quality worldwide. The present study was
conducted to investigate the levels, sources, distribution and spatial variability of heavy metals (Cu, Mn, Cd, Pb, and
Zn) in soils in close proximity to an industrial area. Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (HCA) was applied to test the
similarities between sampled elements based on nearest neighbor method. Mean concentrations (mg/L) of heavy
metals in the sampled soils were as follows: Mn (19.90), Cu (15.23), Zn (9.06), Pb (6.19) and Cd (0.13). ANOVA
showed that the concentrations of individual heavy metals in soils were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the
background reference soils indicating that the effluent discharge from the industry has increased the heavy metal
concentrations in these soils. A strong positive correlation was found between Cu, Zn, Pb and Cd whereas Mn was
positively correlated somewhat less strongly to Zn and Pb. Mn was negatively correlated with Cu and Cd. The
results indicate that the concentrations of all metals except Cd exhibited weak spatial autocorrelations (ratios ranging
from 0.80 to 11.94) confirming that spatial variability was affected by the industrial effluent discharge. These results
suggest the need to develop proper management strategies to contend with heavy metal contamination in industrial
areas
