Determining Soil Quality Index (SQI) For Heavy Metal Contaminated Agricultural Field.

Adverse effect of heavy metal contamination in agricultural field near at the abandoned metal mine has been awared as a citical problem in Korea not only for human health concern but also crop safety. In addition, crop production is generally decreased after remediation in agricultural field. Main objective of this research was to determine soil quality index (SQI) in heavy metal contamined agriclutural field after remediation with chemical amendments for evaluating crop productivity. Five soil chemical properties, soil pH, electric conductivity (EC), cation exchange capacity (CEC), available phospohate (P₂O₅), and soil organic matter (SOM) were chosen as minimum data set (MDS) with principle component analysis (PCA). Among 5 factors, available phosphate showed the lowest percentage (38%) for the optimum range in terms of crop productivity comparing to other properties (58% for soil pH, 42% for EC, and 60% for OM, 72% for CEC). Based on PCA analysis, SQI was calculated with weighting method. Calculated SQI in agricultural filed remediated with three different chemical amendments, lime, steel slag, and acid mine drainage slude, was 56, 48, and 46 respectively. Overall, steel slag can be used as chemical amendment for remediation in heavy metal contamined agricultural field considering crop safety and management of available phosphate is necessary to increase crop yield.

Key words: Heavy metal, Remediation, Amendments,Soil quality index, Minimum data set