Quantitative assessment of the effects of agricultural practices designed to reduce 137Cs and 90Sr soil-plant transfer in meadows

Agricultural practices (ploughing and reseeding, addition of lime and fertiliser) were tested as a feasible remediation strategy to reduce 137Cs (RCs) and 90Sr (RSr) soil–plant transfer in natural meadows in areas affected by the Chernobyl fallout. Field experiments were carried out for 2 years at six sites, covering dry and wet meadows. Observed results at field scale showed that ploughing plus reseeding provoked the main reduction in RSr transfer, with no further reduction after liming, while ploughing + reseeding +K fertiliser led to the maximum decrease in RCs transfer at most sites. The direct effects of agricultural practices on the exchange complex and soil solution composition were quantified by subsequent soil analyses. At the doses applied, lime did not affect the Ca +Mg concentrations in the exchange complex and soil solution of the ploughed soils, thus suggesting that the decrease in RSr transfer on treated plots was mainly due to the changes in the plant species after reseeding. With respect to RCs, changes in the K+NH4 + concentrations in the exchange complex and soil solution were consistent with changes in soil-plant transfer. Finally, RSr and RCs soil–plant transfer in ploughed plots was well predicted from soil properties, such as the solid–liquid distribution coefficient, the ionic composition of the soil solution and the exchangeable cations, with Pearson correlation coefficients of 0.98 and 0.86, respectively, between calculated and experimental log transfer factors.