TITLE:
Arsenic in Bangladesh Soils and Its Relationship with Water Soluble Soil Organic Carbon
AUTHORS:
Shurovi Zaman, Anjuman Ara Rajonee, Shah Muhammad Imamul Huq
KEYWORDS:
Arsenic Hot Spots, Contaminated Groundwater, Release of Arsenic, Peat Deposits
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Soil Science,
Vol.7 No.4,
April
20,
2017
ABSTRACT: An experiment was done to see the effect of water soluble organic carbon in soil on the release of arsenic (As). Fifty soil samples, rich in organic carbon were collected from five districts of Bangladesh namely Comilla, Jessore, Satkhira, Gopalganj and Bagerhat. Water soluble organic carbon (WSOC) of the analyzed samples ranged between 15 to 466 mg/L with an average of about 155 mg/L whereas the arsenic concentrations varies between 1.4 to 5.9 mg/L with an average of 4.2 mg/L. The arsenic contents were much higher in soils where peat deposits are prominent (Gopalganj). There has been a log-log relationship between WSOC and soil, as for all the soils, the R2 ranging from 0.355 to 0.811. Correlation between water soluble organic carbon and soil arsenic showed a positive and significant relation between the two parameters indicating the fact that organic or peat deposits contributes to the release of arsenic in Bangladesh environments.