Spatial variability and solubility of barium in a petroleum well-drilling waste disposal area.

The petroleum industry generates a range of wastes which is often are disposed in soil close to the well location, negatively affecting soil and water quality. The objective of this study was to evaluate the solubility and map the spatial variability of barium in a potentially contaminated area. The study area consisted of a petroleum well-drilling waste disposal site located in the municipality of Mato Rico-PR. A large georeferenced sampling grid was organized. Soil samples were collected at depths of 30, 60, 90, and 120 cm for determination of the "pseudo-total" concentrations and geochemical fractionation of barium. The barium concentrations showed spatial dependence, which permitted the use of geostatistical interpolators. Regarding depth, the depth of 0-30 cm showed the largest contaminated area; however, higher concentrations of barium were found at the depth of 60-90 cm. The results of geochemical fractionation showed that the analyzed samples contained percentages higher than 99% in the non-labile fraction (residual). These results indicate clearly that the barium was in a condition of low solubility, even for samples that had the highest concentrations, presenting low-environmental risk.

Spatial variability of soil carbon stock in the Urucu river basin, Central Amazon-Brazil.

The Amazon Forest plays a major role in C sequestration and release. However, few regional estimates of soil organic carbon (SOC) stock in this ecoregion exist. One of the barriers to improve SOC estimates is the lack of recent soil data at high spatial resolution, which hampers the application of new methods for mapping SOC stock. The aims of this work were: (i) to quantify SOC stock under undisturbed vegetation for the 0-30 and the 0-100 cm under Amazon Forest; (ii) to correlate the SOC stock with soil mapping units and relief attributes and (iii) to evaluate three geostatistical techniques to generate maps of SOC stock (ordinary, isotopic and heterotopic cokriging). The study site is located in the Central region of Amazon State, Brazil. The soil survey covered the study site that has an area of 80 km(2) and resulted in a 1:10,000 soil map. It consisted of 315 field observations (96 complete soil profiles and 219 boreholes). SOC stock was calculated by summing C stocks by horizon, determined as a product of BD, SOC and the horizon thickness. For each one of the 315 soil observations, relief attributes were derived from a topographic map to understand SOC dynamics. The SOC stocks across 30 and 100 cm soil depth were 3.28 and 7.32 kg C m(-2), respectively, which is, 34 and 16%, lower than other studies. The SOC stock is higher in soils developed in relief forms exhibiting well-drained soils, which are covered by Upland Dense Tropical Rainforest. Only SOC stock in the upper 100 cm exhibited spatial dependence allowing the generation of spatial variability maps based on spatial (co)-regionalization. The CTI was inversely correlated with SOC stock and was the only auxiliary variable feasible to be used in cokriging interpolation. The heterotopic cokriging presented the best performance for mapping SOC stock.

Valoração ambiental do efeito externo da erosão em duas sub - bacias com diferentes percentuais de mata atlântica / Valuation of environmental effects of erosion in external two sub - watersheds with different percentages of forest atlantic

A equação universal de perda de solo (USLE) vem sendo utilizada para valorar os serviços ambientais de praticas conservacionistas e uso do solo em sub-bacias na quantificação da erosão e aporte de sedimentos. Neste sentido este trabalho objetivou comparar os resultados de perda de solo e de valoração ambiental obtido a partir da USLE com os valores mensurados no exutório de duas sub-bacias. A perda total de solo foi calculada utilizando técnicas de geoprocessamento e transformada em aporte de sedimentos e comparado ao aporte de sedimento observado no exutório da sub-bacias. A produção de sedimentos calculada e observada foi valorada considerando o custo de remoção de sedimentos do sistema de captação de água das microbacias. De forma geral, o modelo utilizado não apresentou bom ajuste para a quantificação do aporte de sedimentos nas sub-bacias Glória e Palmital, superestimando os valores medidos nas respectivas áreas. De acordo com a valoração ambiental pelo custo de retirada de sedimentos observou-se que a microbacia com maior cobertura florestal reduz o aporte de sedimentos e gera mais serviços ambientais reduzindo os custos de retirada de sedimentos na captação de água.

The Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) has been used to appraise the environmental services of the conservation practices and land use in sub - watersheds in the quantification of erosion and sediment delivery. In this sense this study compares the results of soil loss and environmental valuation obtained from the USLE model with the values measured in the discharge of water of both watersheds. The total soil loss was calculated using GIS techniques and transformed into sediment delivery and then compared to the production of sediment observed in the discharge watersheds. The sediment production rate was calculated and valued considering the cost of sediment removal from water catchment system. In general, the model used did not show goodfit for quantification of sediment delivery in sub - watersheds Gloria and Palmital, overestimating the values measured in the respective areas. According to evaluation by environmental cost of removing sediment was observed that the more sub ­ watershed forest cover reduces the accumulation of sediments creates more environmental services and reducing the costs of removal of sediment in the water uptake.

Concentration and spatial distribution of lead in soil used for ammunition destruction.

Studies on heavy metal contamination in soils used for ammunition disposal and destruction are still emerging. The present study aimed to evaluate the contamination level and spatial distribution of lead in disposal and destruction areas. This site was used for ammunition disposal and destruction activities for 20 years. The ammunition destruction site (1,296 ha), a sampling system that followed a sampling grid (5 m × 5 m) with 30 points was adopted and samples were collected at the following five depths with a total of 150 samples. During the collection procedure, each sampling grid point was georeferenced using a topographic global positioning system. Data were validated through semivariogram and kriging models using Geostat software. The results demonstrated that the average lead value was 163 mg kg(-1), which was close to the investigation limit and the contamination levels were higher downstream than upstream. The results showed that there was lead contamination at the destruction site and that the contamination existed mainly at the surface layer depth. However, high lead concentrations were also found at deeper soil depths in the destruction area due to frequent detonations. According to the planimetry data, the areas that require intervention significantly decreased with increasing depths in the following order: 582.7 m(2) in the 0-20 cm layer; 194.6 m(2) in the 20-40 cm layer; 101.6 m(2) in the 40-60 cm layer; and 45.3 m(2) in the 60-80 cm layer.