Environmental pollution caused by the accumulation of common heavy metals (As, Al, Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Pb, Ni, and Zn) in soils and their anthropogenic sources has been extensively studied before. However, the ecotoxicity of uncommon heavy metals (Ag, Bi, Co, Sb, Th, Tl, U, and V) in soils is currently underestimated and needs to be researched to better understand their impact on the environment. This study aimed to determine the concentrations of the uncommon heavy metals in 90 soil samples obtained from both urban and agricultural lands near Uþak, western Turkiye to investigate dimensions of the existing ecological pollution using geoaccumulation index and enrichment factor indices, and to identify their potential pollutants. The concentration values for the selected elements ranged from 0.01 to 0.46 mg/kg for silver (Ag); 0.07 to 0.72 mg/kg for bismuth (Bi); 7.9 to 55.8 mg/kg for cobalt (Co); 0.12 to 27.99 mg/kg antimony (Sb); 3.4 to 17.7 mg/kg for thorium (Th); 0.04 to 0.5 mg/kg for thallium (Tl); 0.3 to 7.3 mg/kg for uranium (U); and 18 to 72 mg/kg for vanadium (V). Igeo values of Ag showed moderate to heavy contamination in the city center of Uþak province. Igeo values of Bi and Sb in the west part of the study area indicated extremely contaminated soils. EF values for Bi and Sb also showed significant enrichment in the soils in the western portion of the study area which further validates that the potential sources for Bi and Sb heavy metals contaminations might be anthropogenic. ORCID NO: 0000-0002-3843-7203
Anahtar Kelimeler: Uncommon heavy metals contamination, Geoaccumulation index, Enrichment Factor, Bismuth, Antimony
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