Concentration and mobility of lithogenic trace metals in soils: significance of anthropogenic lateral redistributions

One of the main current concerns regarding soil quality is the presence of trace metals that constitutes a risk of toxicity for plants and animals [1, 5, 7, 11]. Trace metals in soils can have either a lithogenic origin when they inherit from the lithosphere or an anthropogenic origin when they result from man’s activities (mining, metallurgy of non-ferrous metals, combustion of fossil energy sources, solid waste or sewage sludge) [5]. Recent studies showed that concentration of lithogenic trace metals in soils could not be explained without taking man’s activities into account.