Soil ingestion by sheep grazing the metal enriched floodplain soils of mid-Wales

Floodplain soils within and downstream from the mineralised and mined areas of mid-Wales, are contaminated by metals, especially Pb, because of historical and contemporary fluvial pollution. Rates of soil ingestion by sheep grazing these sites have been quantified to establish the relative importance of the soil-plant-animal and soil-animal pathway of metals. The highest rates of soil ingestion occurred during the winter/spring period. During March, soil ingestion exceeded 30% of the D.M. intake at 2 of the 11 sites investigated. The total daily intake of metals by sheep reflects the degree of soil metal enrichment, and is elevated during the winter/spring period, coincident with the higher rates of soil ingestion and the generally higher pasture herbage metal concentrations. Because the soil-plant transfer of Pb is low, ingested soil is often the major pathway of this metal to sheep. This is especially evident in March and May when on average 80.0 and 82.9%, respectively of the Pb intake was via soil ingestion. At one site in May, 97% of the Pb intake was attributable to ingested soil. Even when soil-plant transfers are not so low, as found for Cu and Zn, ingested soil can occasionally supply greater than 60% of these metals to the animal. However, despite the potential importance of soil ingestion, little is known about the availability to and absorption of soil-borne metals by animals.     

洪泛区湿地土壤-植物系统氮含量与气候因子灰色关联分析

文章以二百方子洪泛区湿地为例,运用灰色关联分析方法探讨了洪泛区温地土壤一植物系统氮含量变化与气候因子之间的关系。结果表明,二百方子湿地土壤氮素含量与月平均风速、月日照时数和月蒸发量的关联性较密切;芦苇地上部分氮素含量与月日照时数、月蒸发量和月平均风速关联较密切,而芦苇地下部分氮含量则与月平均降水量、月蒸发量和月平均气温关联较密切。