Arsenic pollution in Amaonye forest soil in Nigeria

Abstract

This study focuses on modeling and prediction of spatial distribution of arsenic (As) in Amaonye forest soil. A total of 605 soil samples were collected at depths of 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 cm from all grid intersection points in an area of 1km x 1km gridded at 100 m grids and were analyzed for arsenic concentration. ArcGIS geostatistical extension was applied to study the distributions of As with variograms models and Kriging technique. The study shows that the metal has similar spatial distributions in all layers of the studied area; and the distribution was influenced by the topography of the landscape with highest accumulation around the stream and spread in the direction of stream water flowing into the forest. The hot sports of arsenic concentration were distributed in a pattern that was congruent with the direction of water flowing in the stream into the forest.