Soil acts as a tank for heavy metals through surface complexation, ion exchange and surface precipitation. The purpose of this study was to assess the contamination and ecological risk of heavy metals (HMs) in agricultural soil in the Al Majma'ah area of central Saudi Arabia. Soil samples from 34 farms were collected, and HMs were evaluated using inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry (ICP-AES). Enrichment factor (EF), contamination factor (CF), pollution load index (PLI), and potential ecological risk index (RI) were applied. The average values of the HMs (dry weight, mg/kg) had the following order: Fe > Al > Mn > Zn > Ni > Cr > V > Cu > Pb > Co > As. Results of contamination indices revealed low contamination, low risk and no enrichment for all HMs, except some minor enrichment for Zn and Ni. The considerable positive correlations between all elemental pairings in the correlation matrix and the one extracted principal component suggested that HMs in Al Majmaah soil were formed from weathering of Jurassic to Quaternary sediments in the research area.

土壤通过表面络合、离子交换和表面沉淀充当重金属的储罐。本研究的目的是评估沙特阿拉伯中部 Al Majma'ah 地区农业土壤中重金属 (HMs) 的污染和生态风险。收集了 34 个农场的土壤样本，并使用电感耦合等离子体原子发射光谱法 (ICP-AES) 评估了 HM。应用富集因子（EF）、污染因子（CF）、污染负荷指数（PLI）和潜在生态风险指数（RI）。HMs 的平均值（干重，mg/kg）的顺序为：Fe > Al > Mn > Zn > Ni > Cr > V > Cu > Pb > Co > As。污染指数结果显示，除 Zn 和 Ni 的少量富集外，所有 HM 均处于低污染、低风险且无富集状态。相关矩阵中所有元素对与提取的一个主成分之间存在相当大的正相关性，表明 Al Majmaah 土壤中的重金属是由研究区侏罗纪至第四纪沉积物的风化形成的。