108(3)_str 29

ISSN 1392-3196 / e-ISSN 2335-8947
Zemdirbyste-Agriculture, vol. 108, No. 3 (2021), p. 227–232
DOI 10.13080/z-a.2021.108.029

Leaching of strontium from Albic Retisol limed with Sr-containing industrial waste

Andrey LITVINOVICH, Anton LAVRISHCHEV, Olga PAVLOVA, Vladimir BURE, Elmira SALJNIKOV

Abstract

To study the intensity of migration of stable strontium (Sr) from the light-textured Albic Retisol with different levels of humus content, a column experiment was carried out. As the Sr-containing lime, conversion chalk (CC) as a by-product of nitrogen fertilizer production containing 90% CaCO3 and 1.5% Sr was used. The experiment included 8 washings, where the eluates of each leachate were analysed for the content of Sr leached from the light-textured Albic Retisol from meadow and forest soils. In a native high-humus soil, complete removal of mobile Sr was achieved by the 3rd washing; in the low-humus soil, Sr leaching began only after the 3rd washing and did not end after the 8th washing. The total amount of Sr washed out from the low-humus soil exceeded that of Sr removed from the soil with a high-humus content by 1.3 times and amounted to 0.21 and 0.16 mg, respectively. Liming of the soil with the waste CC led to its increased leaching of Sr 6.1 mg from low-humus soil and 3.8 mg from high-humus soil. The share of CC-Sr leached from limed soils was 24.3% from high-humus soil and 39.2% from low-humus soil of the amount applied with chalk. Empirical equations developed adequately explained the processes of elution of Sr from native and limed soils. Average rates of the Sr leaching under the simulated precipitation were: for the native low-humus soil −0.29 lg(mg) per year, for the calcareous low-humus soil −0.24 lg(mg) per year and for the calcareous high-humus soil −0.17 l lg(mg) per year.

In the agricultural systems, where systematic and prolonged liming of soils with an ameliorant containing Sr, in order to prevent the ingress of excessive amounts of Sr into the human body, a systematic monitoring of the content of Sr in food chains is required.

Key words: stable strontium, migration, Albic Retisol, empirical equations, liming.

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