Sea-to-land transfer of technetium-99 through the use of contaminated seaweed as an agricultural soil conditioner.
The use of seaweed as an agricultural soil conditioner gives rise to a potential pathway for the transfer of Technetium-99 ((99)Tc) from marine to terrestrial ecosystems and thence to man. However, to date there is little information on the extent of the release of (99)Tc from seaweed into soil and the mechanisms involved. This pot experiment has shown that (99)Tc is released fairly rapidly from Fucus vesiculosus into a sandy coastal soil. Despite low temperature conditions, 60% of the (99)Tc added with the seaweed had accumulated in the soil 15 weeks after addition. Concurrent CO(2) monitoring (used as a measure of microbial decomposition or catabolism) suggested that the initial (99)Tc release (up to 40% in the first 8 weeks) was due to leaching from the seaweed and that microbial decomposition was responsible for the release of the remaining (99)Tc in the latter phase (12-15 weeks).
Webster
Shona
S
Department of Environmental Science, University of Stirling, Stirling FK9 4LA, UK . shona.webster@stir.ac.uk
Salt
Carol A
CA
Howard
Brenda J
BJ
D000383:Agriculture; D001682:Biological Availability; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D005308:Fertilizers; D044645:Fucus / Q000737:chemistry*; D012988:Soil Microbiology; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive / Q000032:analysis* / Q000378:metabolism; D013667:Technetium / Q000032:analysis / Q000378:metabolism / Q000493:pharmacokinetics*; D013696:Temperature
D005308:Fertilizers; D012990:Soil Pollutants, Radioactive; D013667:Technetium