Heavy metal contents in the soils in the Baoshan District of Shanghai were monitored to evaluate the risk of soil environmental quality degradation due to rapid urbanization and to reveal the ways of heavy metal accumulation in soil during rapid urban sprawl. It was found that the soils in this district were commonly contaminated by Pb, Zn and Cd. Evaluated with a geo-accumulation index (Igeo), the rate of Pb contamination in soils was 100% with 59% of these graded as moderate-severe or severe; Zn contamination reached 59% with 6% graded as moderate-severe or severe; and Cd contamination was over 50%, with one site graded as moderate-severe and another severe-extremely severe. Metal contamination of soils around the Shanghai metropolis was mainly attributed to traffic, industrial production, wastewater irrigation and improper disposal of solid wastes. Because of continuing urbanization, the cultivated land around the metropolis should be comprehensively planned and carefully managed. Also the soil environmental quality of vegetable production bases in this area should be monitored regularly, with vegetables to be grown selected according to the degrees and types of soil contamination.
Comparisons of red ratings (RR) with Fed, Fed/Fet, clay content, and magnetic susceptibility (X) of two loess-paleosol sequences at Luochuan and Lingtai on China's Loess Plateau were conducted to study the possible relationship between RR and pedogenic degrees of the two loess-paleosol sequences, and to discuss whether the RR could become new paleo-climatic indicators. Results showed that the RR of the two loess-paleosol sequences had positive, highly significant (P ＜ 0.01)correlations with: 1) citrate-bicarbonate-dithionite (CBD) extracted iron (Fed), 2) ratios of CBD extracted iron to total iron (Fed/Fet), 3) clay (＜ 2 μm), and 4) magnetic susceptibility (X). This suggested that the RR of these loess-paleosol sequences could indicate degrees of loess weathering and pedogenesis and were potential paleo-climatic proxies. The strong correlations of RR to Fed and X also implied that during pedogenic processes, pedogenic hematite in loess and paleosols were closely related to the amount of total secondary iron oxides and pedogenic ferrimagnetic minerals (predominantly maghemite).
