Monitoring programme of Finnish arable land : agua regia extractable trace elements in cultivated soils in 1998

Summary

The main aim of this study was to produce internationally comparable knowledge on the status of cultivated soils in Finland. From the soil material collected during the latest sampling process under the national monitoring programme in 1998, 338 samples were selected for this investigation. The sampling sites were situated evenly over the whole cultivated area in Finland. Samples taken as four sub-samples from the plough layer were analysed for arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), chromium (Cr), copper (Cu), lead (Pb), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), selenium (Se), vanadium (V) and zinc (Zn) using aqua regia extraction according to an international standard method (ISO 11466). General statistical indicators of the analytical results of trace element concentrations are presented by soil type groups and by plant cultivation zones. Distributions of the results into the concentration classes are shown graphically and geographical distributions of the trace element concentrations are presented on the thematic maps.