What is the Influence of Soil Capping Depth and Plant Species on Moisture Dynamics in Phosphogypsum Stacks Reclamation?
Source: http://www.ia.nrcs.usda.gov/news/successstories/Jensen.html
Food demands throughout the world are increasingly stressed due to exponential population growth, limiting land resources and failing productivity of exhausted soils. The result is an increasing demand on commercial fertilizer to enhance crop yields and meet agricultural needs. Unfortunately, mass production of commercial fertilizers creates vast amounts of waste material such as phosphogypsum (PG), a faintly radioactive by-product in the production of phosphate based fertilizers.
In Alberta, the PG material, once separated from the desired product, is disposed of in pyramid-like ponds known as phosphogypsum stacks. Reclamation of these stacks involves capping these stacks with topsoil and seeding them with grasses. Unfortunately, it is unclear as to the amount of topsoil needed to appropriately isolate the PG material.
In Alberta, the PG material, once separated from the desired product, is disposed of in pyramid-like ponds known as phosphogypsum stacks. Reclamation of these stacks involves capping these stacks with topsoil and seeding them with grasses. Unfortunately, it is unclear as to the amount of topsoil needed to appropriately isolate the PG material.
In October of 2006, eighteen plots were established on the inactive Fort Saskatchewan PG stack, including six soil depth treatments in a replicated, randomized block design, and seeded to five different vegetation treatments. During the winter of 2008, a conservative tracer (KCl) was applied to the surface of the plots and allowed to infiltrate into the soil profile. After one year each plot was sampled to determine the extent of migration of the tracer. It was observed that the capping depth was influencing the migration of tracer. It was also observed that particular plant species were also impacting the migration of the tracer within each soil depth treatment.
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Disclaimer: All datasets, events and parameters have been manipulated and/or randomly generated.