Total and partial extraction of selected elements in soils of the Poland-Lithuania borderland

The aim of this study was to determine the geochemistry of soils and an est imation of their pollution rate due to anthropogenic activity. A comparison between geochemical maps based on different methods of sample preparation and analytical techniques was the second aim. Sampling density was 1/25 km( 2) over an area of some 10,000 km(2) (borderland of Poland and Lithuania). The ratio of results from partial and total extraction techniques vary cons iderably, largely dependent on the type of element bonding in the sampled m edium. The most easily extractable element (over 80%) is zinc and the lowes t are Pa, Cr, Sr, Ti and V. Despite distinct differences between total and extractable contents for certain elements, their distribution on maps are a lmost analogous. Particularly similarity is observed for elements such as C o, Cr, Cu, Ni, P, Ti, V, and Zn. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.