Impact of heating season on the soil pollution in Kirklareli province of Turkey

This study, conducted in Kirklareli city centre, aims to analyse heavy metal pollution in soil due to heating season (HS). For this purpose, 86 soil samples were taken from the identified locations with a depth of 0–10 cm before (43 samples in September 2015) and after (43 samples in April 2016) HS. Besides, 10 soil samples (5 samples before the HS and 5 samples after the HS) were collected to determine the contamination level from 50 cm deep soil as a reference value. Collected soil samples were tested for Zn, Cu, Co, Pb, Ni, Cr, Hg and Cd metal concentration as well as pH values. Both seasons showed similar results in the soil samples in terms of mean metal concentration levels in the following order: Zn > Cr > Ni > Cu > Co > Pb > Cd > Hg. The mean concentration values of all the metals were higher after the HS than the levels before the HS. The study also attempted to determine anthropogenic metal input. An increase was observed in anthropogenic metal input after the HS when compared with before HS. Geoaccumulation index (I_geo) was employed to determine the degree of metal pollution, while the contamination factor (Cf) was used to determine the level of contamination. The overall degree of pollution was identified using the degree of contamination (Cd) and modified degree of contamination (mC_d). Besides, the positive matrix factorization (PMF) receptor model used to find the possible sources of heavy metals in soil samples.