Movement of Zn, Pb and Cd through an Undisturbed Column of a Soil under Forest

Laboratory experiments were conducted with undisturbed soil columns of a soil under forest td study the mOvement of applied Zn. Pb and Cd under steady state unsaturated flow conditions (1.0 cm day⁻¹). Though there was no clear break through in any of the trace metals in the effluents. their contents reached a peak value whenfour pore volumes were passed and then declined. At the end of experiment (90 days) the amount of trace metals in leachates remained more or less similar to the original values. Most of the applied heavy metals were retained in the top 10 cm of the soil (87 to 96%) and this resulted in lower recovery of heavy metals in the leachates (Zn 12.6%, Pb 6.0% and Cd 8.3%).