Siti Zulaikah, Dewi Nur Alfiah, Asfiyanti Latifah, Mochammad Bagas Setya Rahman, Cahyo Aji Hapsoro, Ardyanto Tanjung, Ann Marie Hirt, Hanif Izzuddin Zakly, Muhammad Fathur Rouf Hasan
Heavy metals tracing and magnetic susceptibility are generally used as a proxy indicator of pollution in various depositional environments. This research focused on tracing the significant record of pollution of the Muntingia calabura tree to understand the sensitivity in recording pollution and mining production. The area of this research is a hydrocarbon mining site of Wonocolo Geopark in the Bojonegoro, East Java Indonesia. The samples were taken both polluted and non-polluted leaf and bark, from 20 sampling points. Polluted leaves then were characterized by the existence of elevated levels of Pb, Fe, Cu and Zn. The average magnetic susceptibility of leaves increases from 0.86 × 10^-8 m³/kg in non-polluted samples to 13.55 × 10^-8 m³/kg in polluted samples and in the same way, increasing of magnetic susceptibility was also seen in the barks, from an average of 0.21 × 10^-8 m³/kg in non-polluted sample, to 2.55 × 10^-8 m³/kg in polluted sample. The pattern of magnetic susceptibility on leaves and barks at each sampling point is also the same as the pattern of hydrocarbon production which is related to the level of pollution in the area. The increase of magnetic susceptibility in polluted leaves and barks is thought caused by input of magnetic minerals and heavy metals from the fly ash of diesel engines used for hydrocarbon mining process. The heavy metal concentration has the average of Pb (0.070 ppm), Fe (13.322 ppm), Cu (8.434 ppm), and Zn (11.668 ppm). This value has exceeded the threshold of heavy metals content and have a worst impact on health and the environment. Based on Pollution Load Index (PLI) calculations, the most of areas affected by heavy metal pollution in very high and extremly high levels with the highest pollutants input are Fe, Cu, Zn and Pb respectively. © 2026 by the author(s). Licensee Acadlore Publishing Services Limited, Hong Kong. This article can be downloaded for free, and reused and quoted with a citation of the original published version, under the CC BY 4.0 license.
Department of Physics, Faculty of Mathematic and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, 65145, Indonesia; Department of Geography, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universitas Negeri Malang, Malang, 65145, Indonesia; Institute of Geophysics, ETH-Zurich, Zurich, CH-8092, Switzerland; Graduate School, Universitas Brawijaya, Malang, 65145, Indonesia
