Abstract

Soil is an essential natural resource for support of human life, but with time, itsdegradation has been constantly increasing due to the deposition of pollutants.The aim of this research is to study the changes of the chemical properties ofthe soil which has been irrigated for a long period with polluted river water, andthe effect of each property on the other properties.The study was on the agricultural soil besides Army canal in Baghdad citywhich is irrigated by the canal water. This canal ends at Al-Rustamia wastewatertreatment plant. Samples of soil which is irrigated and not irrigated with canalwater were taken. The samples were analyzed to find the chemical properties suchas heavy metals(Pb,Zn,Ni,Cr,Cd) and other parameters of soil (SO4,Cl,TSS,pH,OM).Samples were taken from points far from the canal (non irrigated soil), theother samples have decreasing distances from the canal bank and the last one is justat the river margin (irrigated soil) to find out the differences in chemical properties.The relation between soil concentrations of heavy metals and the otherparameters in the chemical properties of the soil was studied the following resultswere found: A positive corelation between SO4 and OM, TSS and EC was found,also Zn and Pb with SO4, Zn and Pb with OM.Also, a comparison was done between the properties of irrigated soil and theproperties of non irrigated soil. Results show that Pb and Ni increased out of theallowable limits, Ec and TSS increment has also been found especially in the nonirrigated soil.

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The article was added to IASJ on 2012-05-22

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