Soil–plant transfer models for metals to improve soil screening value guidelines valid for São Paulo, Brazil

In Brazil, there is a lack of combined soil–plant data attempting to explain the influence of specific climate, soil conditions, and crop management on heavy metal uptake and accumulation by plants. As a consequence, soil–plant relationships to be used in risk assessments or for derivation of soil screening values are not available. Our objective in this study was to develop empirical soil–plant models for Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, and Zn, in order to derive appropriate soil screening values representative of humid tropical regions such as the state of São Paulo (SP), Brazil. Soil and plant samples from 25 vegetable species in the production areas of SP were collected. The concentrations of metals found in these soil samples were relatively low. Therefore, data from temperate regions were included in our study. The soil–plant relations derived had a good performance for SP conditions for 8 out of 10 combinations of metal and vegetable species. The bioconcentration factor (BCF) values for Cd, Cu, Ni, Pb, and Zn in lettuce and for Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn in carrot were determined under three exposure scenarios at pH 5 and 6. The application of soil–plant models and the BCFs proposed in this study can be an important tool to derive national soil quality criteria. However, this methodological approach includes data assessed under different climatic conditions and soil types and need to be carefully considered.