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- Title
Element mobility and partitioning along a soil acidity gradient in central Ontario forests, Canada.
- Authors
Watmough, Shaun A.
- Abstract
The potential environmental risk posed by metals in forest soils is typically evaluated by modeling metal mobility using soil-solution partitioning coefficients (Kd), although such information is generally restricted to a few well-studied metals. Soil-solution partitioning coefficients were determined for 17 mineral elements (Al, As, Be, Ba, Ca, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ga, K, Li, Mg, Rb, Sr, Tl, U and V) in A-horizon (0–5 cm) soil at 46 forested sites that border the Precambrian Shield in central Ontario, where soil pHaq varied from 3.9 to 8.1. Sites were dominated by mature sugar maple ( Acer saccharum Marsh.), white birch ( Betula papyrifera Marsh.), balsam fir ( Abies balsamea (L.) Mill.) or white pine ( Pinus strobus L.). Log Kd values for all elements could be predicted by empirical linear regression with soil pH ( r 2 = 0.17–0.77) independent of forest type, although this relationship was greatly affected by positive relationships between acid-extractable metal concentration and pHaq for 13 of the 17 elements. Elements that exhibited strong or moderate ( r 2> 0.29; p < 0.001) relationships with soil pHaq in soil water extracts include Al, Ba, Fe, Ga, K, Li, Rb, Tl, V (negative) and Ca (positive). Elemental partitioning in mineral soil was independent of forest type; tree species differed in their response to chemical differences in mineral soil. For example, Rb, Ba, and Sr concentrations in foliage of sugar maple and white birch significantly increased with increasing soil acidity, whereas Rb, Ba, and Sr concentrations in balsam fir and white pine foliage exhibited no response to soil pHaq. While Kd values can provide useful information on the potential mobility and bioavailability of mineral elements in forest soils, care must be used when interpreting the relative contribution of solid and aqueous phases to this relationship and the differing responses of vegetation in elemental cycling in forests must also be considered.
- Subjects
ONTARIO; HEAVY metal content of forest soils; SOIL mineralogy; SOIL acidity; SOIL moisture; SOIL testing; PROBLEM soils; SUGAR maple
- Publication
Environmental Geochemistry & Health, 2008, Vol 30, Issue 5, p431
- ISSN
0269-4042
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1007/s10653-007-9127-8