Abstract
Potentially toxic inorganic and organic chemicals reach the soil by either direct application or deposition of emissions or as contaminants of plant litter. Although 65 elements with a specific gravity > 5 can be considered as heavy metals, only about 25% of them have been included in ecotoxicity studies. This is because the remaining elements are either extremely rare or insoluble and the environmental impact is considered to be small (Duxbury 1985). The number of organic chemicals which require environmental monitoring, however, is considerably higher. Pesticides designed to interfere with living cells and used in open systems are obvious examples of organic chemicals which need to be considered with priority in this context.
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© 1989 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
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Domsch, K.H. (1989). Microbiological Aspects of Heavy Metal and Toxic Chemical Behaviour in Porous Media. In: Bar-Yosef, B., Barrow, N.J., Goldshmid, J. (eds) Inorganic Contaminants in the Vadose Zone. Ecological Studies, vol 74. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74451-8_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-74451-8_8
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