Title Page
Contents
Abbreviations 5
1. Introduction 6
2. Objectives of research 8
3. Literature review 9
3.1. Effects of heavy metals on soil quality 9
3.2. Soil quality assessment in heavy metal contaminated soil 9
3.3. In-situ immobilization technique 10
4. Materials and Methods 12
4.1. Characteristics of experimental soil and immobilizing agents 12
4.2. Experimental set up 12
4.3. Soil sampling and chemical analysis 13
4.5. Plant growth study 14
4.6. Plant analysis 14
4.7. Statistical analysis 14
5. Results and discussion 16
5.1. Effects of immobilizing agents on pH, EC and DOC 16
5.2. Effect of immobilizing agents on metal phytoavailability 17
5.3. Effect of immobilizing agents on soil chemical properties 20
5.4. Effects of immobilizing agents on soil microbiological properties 23
5.4.1. Microbial biomass carbon (MBC) 23
5.4.2. Dehydrogenase enzyme activity (DHA) 23
5.5. Effect of immobilizing agents on soil physical properties 24
6. Conclusion 26
7. References 27
Abstract 32
Table 1. Mean values of chemical composition and heavy metal concentrations of the soil and... 15
Table 2. Applied immobilizing agents to the contaminated soil 15
Table 3. Effect of immobilizing agents on pH, EC and DOC concentrations in soil 17
Figure 1. The most commonly used soil quality indicators. 10
Figure 2. Mechanisms of soil amendments induced metal immobilization. 11
Figure 3. Effect of different immobilizing agents on total As, Cd, Cu, Pb and Zn concentrations in... 19
Figure 4. (i) Effect of different immobilizing agents on soil chemical properties 21
Figure 5. (ii) Effect of different immobilizing agents on soil chemical properties 22
Figure 6. Effect of different immobilizing agents on soil microbiological properties 24
Figure 7. Effect of different immobilizing agents on soil physical properties 25