Urban soils as pollutant sinks — a case study from Aberdeen, Scotland

The chemical composition of soils from 80 sites within the city of Aberdeen in north-east Scotland have been determined by aqua-regia digestion and inductively coupled plasma emission spectroscopy. Within the urban dataset soils from roadside locations show enhanced contents of Pb, Zn, Ba and Cu and can be readily distinguished from those obtained from city parks. However, comparison of the composition of the urban soils with rural soils, derived from similar parent material, show that chemically these 2 groups of soils now have little in common.