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{{LondonAtlas}}
The London Region Atlas of Topsoil Geochemistry (LRA) is a further step towards understanding the chemical quality of soils in London, following a previous project called London Earth carried out by the British Geological Survey (BGS) (Johnson et al., 2010<ref>Johnson, C C, Scheib, A, and Lister, T R. 2010. London Earth topsoil chemical results : user guide. British Geological Survey Open Report, OR/11/035. </ref>). The main advantage of the LRA is that it includes soil geochemical data from the counties surrounding London; placing the city within the context of its rural hinterland, allowing assessments of the impact of urbanisation on soil quality.

The London Region Atlas of Topsoil Geochemistry is a product derived from the BGS Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE<ref name="Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE)">Geochemical Baseline Survey of the Environment (G-BASE) http://www.bgs.ac.uk/gbase/home.html</ref>) project. The London Region Geochemical Dataset ('''LRD''', ''n''=8400), on which the atlas is based, includes TOPSOIL data from two complementary surveys: i) the urban London Earth (LOND) and ii) the rural South East England (SEEN). The LRA covers the Greater London Authority (GLA) and its outskirts in a rectangular area of 80x62 km. This extends from British National Grid coordinates Easting 490000–570000, and Northing 153000–215000. The urban '''LOND''' and the rural '''SEEN''' surveys contribute with 6801 and 1599 samples respectively to the '''LRD'''.

The concentrations of 44 inorganic chemical elements ([[Aluminium: LRA |Al2O3]], [[Calcium: LRA |CaO]], [[Iron: LRA |Fe2O3]], [[Potassium: LRA |K2O]], [[Magnesium: LRA |MgO]], [[Manganese: LRA |MnO]], [[Sodium: LRA |Na2O]], [[Phosphorus: LRA |P2O5]], [[Silicon: LRA |SiO2]], [[Titanium: LRA |TiO2]], [[Silver: LRA |Ag]], [[Arsenic: LRA |As]], [[Barium: LRA |Ba]], [[Bismuth: LRA |Bi]], [[Bromine: LRA |Br]], [[Cadmium: LRA |Cd]], [[Cerium: LRA |Ce]], [[Cobalt: LRA |Co]], [[Chromium: LRA |Cr]], [[Caesium: LRA |Cs]], [[Copper: LRA |Cu]], [[Gallium: LRA |Ga]], [[Germanium: LRA |Ge]], [[Hafnium: LRA |Hf]], [[Iodine: LRA |I]], [[Lanthanum: LRA |La]], [[Molybdenum: LRA |Mo]], [[Niobium: LRA |Nb]], [[Neodymium: LRA |Nd]], [[Nickel: LRA |Ni]], [[Lead:_LRA |Pb]], [[Rubidium: LRA |Rb]], [[Antimony: LRA |Sb]], [[Scandium: LRA |Sc]], [[Selenium: LRA |Se]], [[Tin: LRA |Sn]], [[Strontium: LRA |Sr]], [[Thorium: LRA |Th]], [[Uranium: LRA |U]], [[Vanadium: LRA |V]], [[Tungsten: LRA |W]], [[Yttrium: LRA |Y]], [[Zinc: LRA |Zn]] and [[Zirconium: LRA |Zr]]), loss on ignition ([[Loss on ignition: LRA |LOI]]) and [[Acidity/Basicity: LRA |pH]] in topsoil are included in the LRA. For each element, a map showing the distribution in topsoil across the atlas area and a one-page sketch of descriptive statistics and graphs are presented. Statistics and graphs for whole dataset ('''LRD'''), London urban subset ('''LOND''') and London surroundings rural subset ('''SEEN'''), as well as graphs of topsoil element concentrations over each simplified geology unit are shown.

The LRD has been used already in a study aiming to detect geogenic (geological) signatures and controls on soil chemistry in the London region (Appleton et al., 2013<ref>Appleton, J D, Johnson, C C, Ander, E L, and Flight, D M A . 2013. Geogenic signatures detectable in topsoils of urban and rural domains in the London region, UK, using parent material classified data. Applied Geochemistry, 39, 169–180. 10.1016/j.apgeochem.2013.07.010</ref>). It includes maps showing the distribution of Al, Si, La and I (and Th, Ca, Mn, As, Pb and Zr in supplementary material) and it is concluded that the spatial distribution of a range of elements is primarily controlled by the rocks from where soil derives, and that these geogenic patterns are still recognisable inside the urban centre. Other studies have been done that are based on data in the '''LRD''', namely using the '''LOND''' subset or part of it. The main focus of these studies was the mercury content (Scheib et al., 2010<ref>Scheib, C, Knights, K V, Flight, D M A, Lister, T R, and Fordyce, F M. 2010. Mercury concentrations in the soil environment of London UK - an example of pollution impacts. In: Abstracts of the 27th SEGH European Conference. Galway, Ireland, SEGH, 100.</ref>), the influence of land use on geochemistry (Knights and Scheib, 2011<ref>Knights, K, and Scheib, C. 2011. Examining the soil chemistry of London's parklands. [Poster] In: Cities, catchments and coasts: applied geoscience for decision-making in London and the Thames Basin, London, UK, 13 May 2011. (Unpublished)</ref>; Lark and Scheib, 2013<ref>Lark, R M, and Scheib, C. 2013. Land use and lead content in the soils of London. Geoderma, 209–210, 65–74. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoderma.2013.06.004</ref>); the bioaccessibility of pollutants such as As and Pb (Appleton et al., 2012<ref>Appleton, J D, Cave, M R,and Wragg, J. 2012. Anthropogenic and geogenic impacts on arsenic bioaccessibility in UK topsoils. Science of The Total Environment, 435–436, 21–29. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2012.07.002</ref>; Appleton et al., 2012<ref>Appleton, J D, Cave, M R, and Wragg, J. 2012. Modelling lead bioaccessibility in urban topsoils based on data from Glasgow, London, Northampton and Swansea, UK. Environmental Pollution, 171, 265–272. dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2012.06.018</ref>; Cave, 2012<ref>Cave, M R. 2012. Bioaccessibility of potentially harmful soil elements. Environmental Scientist, 21 (3), 26–29.</ref>; Appleton et al., 2013<ref>Appleton, J D, Cave, M R, Palumbo-Roe, B, and Wragg, J. 2013. Lead bioaccessibility in topsoils from lead mineralisation and urban domains, UK. Environmental Pollution, 178, 278–287. 10.1016/j.envpol.2013.03.028</ref>; Cave et al., 2013<ref>Cave, M R, Wragg, J, and Chenery, S. 2013. Assessing the sources and bioaccessibility of lead in soils from London. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 15, EGU2013-1440-1, EGU General Assembly 2013</ref>) and the lability of lead in soils (Mao et al., 2014<ref>Mao, L, Bailey, E H, Chester, J, Dean, J, Ander, E L, Chenery, S R, Young, S D. 2014. Lability of Pb in soil: effects of soil properties and contaminant source. Environmental Chemistry, 11 (6), 690–701. 10.1071/EN14100</ref>); the determination of normal background concentrations of contaminants in English soil (Ander et al., 2013<ref>Ander, E L, Johnson, C C, Cave, M R, Palumbo-Roe, B, Nathanail, C P, Lark, R M. 2013 Methodology for the determination of normal background concentrations of contaminants in English soil. Science of The Total Environment, 454–455, 604–618. 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.03.005</ref>) and the contribution of geochemical and other environmental data to the future of the cities (Ludden et al., 2015<ref>Ludden, J, Peach, D, Flight, D. 2015 Geochemically based solutions for urban society: London, a case study. Elements, 11 (4), 253–258. 10.2113/gselements.11.4.253</ref>).

The London Region Atlas of Topsoil Geochemistry formally presents detailed information for all chemical elements in the '''LRD'''. This information can be easily visualised and elements compared as its production and layout is standardised. Differences in topsoil element concentrations between the centre of the city and its outskirts can be assessed by observing the map and comparing statistics and graphs reported for the '''LOND''' and '''SEEN''' subsets respectively. This urban/rural contrast is particularly evident for elements such as [[lead:_LRA |Pb]], [[antimony: LRA |Sb]], [[tin: LRA |Sn]], [[copper: LRA |Cu]] and [[zinc: LRA |Zn]], for which mean concentrations in the urban environment are two to three times higher than those observed in the rural environment. This is a typical indicator suite of urban soil pollution reported in several other cities in the UK also (Fordyce et al., 2005<ref name="Fordyce et al., 2005">Fordyce, F M, Brown, S E, Ander, E L, Rawlins, B G, O'Donnell, K E, Lister, T R, Breward, N, and Johnson, C C. 2005. GSUE: urban geochemical mapping in Great Britain. Geochemistry: Exploration, Environment, Analysis, 5 (4), 325–336. [http://nora.nerc.ac.uk/883/ Download from NORA].</ref>).

==References==
<References/>

[[Category:London Region Atlas of Topsoil Geochemistry | 01]]

London Atlas: Overview - Revision history

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