Ecological assessment of the content of heavy metals and arsenic in soils and agricultural plants of the Central Black Earth Region

The purpose of this work was to carry out an environmental assessment of the content Cr, Pb, Cd, Hg, As in arable soils and agricultural plants of the Central Chernozem economic region of Russia using the example of the Belgorod Region. During the studies, it was found that the average gross content of Cr, Pb, As, Cd, Hg in leached arable chernozem was – 19.8, 10.0, 4.15, 0.22, 0.021, in typical arable chernozems was 20.0, 10.3, 4.18, 0.23, 0.022, in ordinary chernozems – 20.9, 11.2, 5.48, 0.35, 0.023 mg/kg, respectively. The average content of mobile forms of Pb, Cr and Cd in leached arable chernozems was 0.52, 0.14, 0.06, and 0.46, 0.13, 0.05 for the typical arable chernozems, in ordinary chernozem – 0.55, 0.13, 0.04 mg/kg, correspondingly. These elements did not exceed the established UEC and MAC standards in the studied soils. The main source of heavy metals in the arable soils of the Belgorod region is organic fertilizers. The average content of Cr, Pb, As, Cd and Hg in cattle manure is 0.90, 0.78, 0.277, 0.060, 0.0084 mg/kg, respectively. Of the studied crops, sunflower seeds had the highest content of Cd, Pb and Cr, while winter wheat grains had Hg and As. The soy grain has the lowest average content of Pb, Hg and As, and the corn grain has Cr, Cd and As. In the grain of winter wheat, corn, soybeans and sunflower seeds, the content of Pb, Cd, Hg, As did not exceed the maximum permissible concentrations established for products intended for food purposes, and the concentration of Cr did not exceed the maximum permissible level established for feed.