Weakly acidic Litavka and alkaline Malín soils are good examples of multi-contaminated soils in the Czech Republic. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of different application rates of quick lime (lime) and dolomite on the mobility of cadmium, zinc, lead, arsenic, iron and manganese.
Additives were applied to soil samples at three rates and incubated for 7, 14, 28, and 42 days. Plantavailable (extracted by CaCl₂) and acid-extractable (extracted by CH₃COOH) concentrations of elements were determined by inductively coupled plasma-optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). In alkaline soil, there was no effect of lime and dolomite application on concentrations of elements. In acid soil, there was a decrease in plant-available concentrations of Cd and Zn, no effect on plant-available Fe and Mn concentrations, and a slight increase in plant-available Pb and As concentrations after lime application. With the exception of a decrease in Pb and Mn concentrations, the same trends were observed for acid-extractable concentrations of elements. Dolomite application was less effective than lime application. The effect of dolomite on the immobilization of elements increased with increasing application rates. There was a weak effect of time during incubation on changes in concentrations of elements.
We concluded that high immobilization efficiency of alkaline additives on Cd and Zn can be recorded only on acid soils. Application of lime and dolomite is an ineffective measure to immobilize Pb and As in both acid or alkaline soils.