2.4 Atmospheric Deposition of PM-Bound Metal(loid)s
Heavy metal(loid)-enriched PM can accumulate in different compartments of the
environment. Some of these metal-PMs distribute on a local scale within the range of
10 km. However, some metal-PMs are more persistent and can be distributed over
long distance up to a regional scale over hundreds of kilometers away from the
source (National Research Council 2000; Ouyang et al. 2018; Xu et al. 2017)
(Fig. 1). Transport of PM and metal-PM varies on a temporal and spatial scale
(Grantz et al. 2003b; Lü et al. 2018; Markus et al. 2016; Wang et al. 2018;
Weerasundara et al. 2017). The fine metal-PMs having low falling velocity are
easily transferred to different areas by the wind and possibly deposited at long
distances far away from the point of their emission through precipitation (Hoodaji
et al. 2012). These metal-PM then accumulate in different compartments of the
environment.
3 Soil Contamination Due to Atmospheric Deposition
of Metal-PM
The final removal of atmospheric contaminants is their deposition on the surface of
the earth. Due to increasing atmospheric contamination, numerous sites/soils around
the globe have been reported contaminated by heavy metal(loid)s (Nadal et al. 2004;
Rachwał et al. 2017b; Shahid et al. 2012c; Sharma et al. 2018; Weerasundara et al.
Fig. 1 Heavy metal(loid)-enriched particulate matter (metal-PM) released from various sources
into the atmosphere and deposition on different terrestrial ecosystems (soil, water, plant, and
animals/human)
Ecotoxicology of Heavy Metal(loid)-Enriched Particulate Matter: Foliar. . .
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