Vanadium bioavailability in soils amended with blast furnace slag.
Blast furnace (BF) slags are commonly applied as soil amendments and in road fill material. In Sweden they are also naturally high in vanadium. The aim of this study was to assess the vanadium bioavailability in BF slags when applied to soil. Two soils were amended with up to 29% BF slag (containing 800 mg V kg(-1)) and equilibrated outdoors for 10 months before conducting a barley shoot growth assay. Additional soil samples were spiked with dissolved vanadate(V) for which assays were conducted two weeks (freshly spiked) and 10 months (aged) after spiking. The BF slag vanadium was dominated by vanadium(III) as shown by V K-edge XANES spectroscopy. In contrast, results obtained by HPLC-ICP-MS showed that vanadium(V), the most toxic vanadium species, was predominant in the soil solution. Barley shoot growth was not affected by the BF slag additions. This was likely due to limited dissolution of vanadium from the BF slag, preventing an increase of dissolved vanadium above toxic thresholds. The difference in vanadium bioavailability among treatments was explained by the vanadium concentration in the soil solution. It was concluded that the vanadium in BF slag is sparingly available. These findings should be of importance in environmental risk assessment.
Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7014, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden. Electronic address: maja.larsson@slu.se.
Maja A
MA
Larsson
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Leuven University, Kasteelpark Arenberg 20 bus 2459, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: stijn.baken@ees.kuleuven.be.
Stijn
S
Baken
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Leuven University, Kasteelpark Arenberg 20 bus 2459, 3001 Leuven, Belgium. Electronic address: erik.smolders@ees.kuleuven.be.
Erik
E
Smolders
Department of Food Safety and Veterinary Public Health, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, Rome 00161, Italy. Electronic address: francesco.cubadda@iss.it.
Francesco
F
Cubadda
Department of Soil and Environment, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, P.O. Box 7014, 750 07 Uppsala, Sweden; Division of Land and Water Resources Engineering, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Brinellvägen 28, 100 44 Stockholm, Sweden. Electronic address: jon-petter.gustafsson@slu.se.
Jon Petter
JP
Gustafsson
D001682:Biological Availability; D004784:Environmental Monitoring; D001467:Hordeum / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development; D007220:Industrial Waste; D018520:Plant Shoots / Q000737:chemistry / Q000187:drug effects / Q000254:growth & development; D012987:Soil / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000592:standards; D012989:Soil Pollutants / Q000032:analysis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000633:toxicity; D013232:Steel; D014638:Vanadates / Q000032:analysis* / Q000493:pharmacokinetics / Q000633:toxicity
D007220:Industrial Waste; D012987:Soil; D012989:Soil Pollutants; D013232:Steel; D014638:Vanadates
Bioavailability; Blast furnace slag; Phytotoxicity; Soil; Speciation; Vanadium