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Modelling the Transference of Trace Elements between Environmental Compartments in Abandoned Mining Areas

An openly accessible cellular automaton has been developed to predict the preferential migration pathways of contaminants by surface runoff in abandoned mining areas. The site where the validation of the results of the Contaminant Mass Transfer Cellular Automaton (CMTCA) has been carried out is situ...

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Autores principales: Barrio-Parra, Fernando, Izquierdo-Díaz, Miguel, Fernández-Gutiérrez del Álamo, Luis Jesús, Biosca, Bárbara, De Miguel, Eduardo
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7400299/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32679864
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17145117
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author Barrio-Parra, Fernando
Izquierdo-Díaz, Miguel
Fernández-Gutiérrez del Álamo, Luis Jesús
Biosca, Bárbara
De Miguel, Eduardo
author_facet Barrio-Parra, Fernando
Izquierdo-Díaz, Miguel
Fernández-Gutiérrez del Álamo, Luis Jesús
Biosca, Bárbara
De Miguel, Eduardo
author_sort Barrio-Parra, Fernando
collection PubMed
description An openly accessible cellular automaton has been developed to predict the preferential migration pathways of contaminants by surface runoff in abandoned mining areas. The site where the validation of the results of the Contaminant Mass Transfer Cellular Automaton (CMTCA) has been carried out is situated on the steep flank of a valley in the Spanish northwestern region of Asturias, at the foot of which there is a village with 400 inhabitants, bordered by a stream that flows into a larger river just outside the village. Soil samples were collected from the steep valley flank where the mine adits and spoil heaps are situated, at the foot of the valley, and in the village, including private orchards. Water and sediment samples were also collected from both surface water courses. The concentration of 12 elements, including those associated with the Cu-Co-Ni ore, were analyzed by ICP-OES (Perkin Elmer Optima 3300DV, Waltham, MA, USA) and ICP-MS (Perkin Elmer NexION 2000, Waltham, MA, USA). The spatial representation of the model’s results revealed that those areas most likely to be crossed by soil material coming from source zones according to the CMTCA exhibited higher pollution indexes than the rest. The model also predicted where the probabilities of soil mass transfer into the stream were highest. The accuracy of this prediction was corroborated by the results of trace element concentrations in stream sediments, which, for elements associated with the mineral paragenesis (i.e., Cu, Co, Ni, and also As), increased between five- and nine-fold downstream from the predicted main transfer point. Lastly, the river into which the stream discharges is also affected by the mobilization of mined materials, as evidenced by an increase of up to 700% (in the case of Cu), between dissolved concentrations of those same elements upstream and downstream of the confluence of the river and the stream.
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spelling pubmed-74002992020-08-23 Modelling the Transference of Trace Elements between Environmental Compartments in Abandoned Mining Areas Barrio-Parra, Fernando Izquierdo-Díaz, Miguel Fernández-Gutiérrez del Álamo, Luis Jesús Biosca, Bárbara De Miguel, Eduardo Int J Environ Res Public Health Article An openly accessible cellular automaton has been developed to predict the preferential migration pathways of contaminants by surface runoff in abandoned mining areas. The site where the validation of the results of the Contaminant Mass Transfer Cellular Automaton (CMTCA) has been carried out is situated on the steep flank of a valley in the Spanish northwestern region of Asturias, at the foot of which there is a village with 400 inhabitants, bordered by a stream that flows into a larger river just outside the village. Soil samples were collected from the steep valley flank where the mine adits and spoil heaps are situated, at the foot of the valley, and in the village, including private orchards. Water and sediment samples were also collected from both surface water courses. The concentration of 12 elements, including those associated with the Cu-Co-Ni ore, were analyzed by ICP-OES (Perkin Elmer Optima 3300DV, Waltham, MA, USA) and ICP-MS (Perkin Elmer NexION 2000, Waltham, MA, USA). The spatial representation of the model’s results revealed that those areas most likely to be crossed by soil material coming from source zones according to the CMTCA exhibited higher pollution indexes than the rest. The model also predicted where the probabilities of soil mass transfer into the stream were highest. The accuracy of this prediction was corroborated by the results of trace element concentrations in stream sediments, which, for elements associated with the mineral paragenesis (i.e., Cu, Co, Ni, and also As), increased between five- and nine-fold downstream from the predicted main transfer point. Lastly, the river into which the stream discharges is also affected by the mobilization of mined materials, as evidenced by an increase of up to 700% (in the case of Cu), between dissolved concentrations of those same elements upstream and downstream of the confluence of the river and the stream. MDPI 2020-07-15 2020-07 /pmc/articles/PMC7400299/ /pubmed/32679864 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17145117 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Barrio-Parra, Fernando
Izquierdo-Díaz, Miguel
Fernández-Gutiérrez del Álamo, Luis Jesús
Biosca, Bárbara
De Miguel, Eduardo
Modelling the Transference of Trace Elements between Environmental Compartments in Abandoned Mining Areas
title Modelling the Transference of Trace Elements between Environmental Compartments in Abandoned Mining Areas
title_full Modelling the Transference of Trace Elements between Environmental Compartments in Abandoned Mining Areas
title_fullStr Modelling the Transference of Trace Elements between Environmental Compartments in Abandoned Mining Areas
title_full_unstemmed Modelling the Transference of Trace Elements between Environmental Compartments in Abandoned Mining Areas
title_short Modelling the Transference of Trace Elements between Environmental Compartments in Abandoned Mining Areas
title_sort modelling the transference of trace elements between environmental compartments in abandoned mining areas
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7400299/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32679864
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17145117
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