Loss of potentially toxic elements to snowmelt runoff from soils amended with alum, gypsum, and Epsom salt

Abstract

Soil amendment effects on the mobility of potentially toxic elements (PTEs) have been hardly investigated under snowmelt flooding conditions. This research quantifies and compares the loadings of arsenic (As), copper (Cu), nickel (Ni), selenium (Se), vanadium (V), and zinc (Zn) to snowmelt from unamended, alum-, gypsum-, and Epsom salt-amended soils from a manured agricultural field and a non-manured agricultural field. In the fall of 2020, amendments were surface applied at a rate of 2.5 Mg ha−1 to field plots with four replicates. Runoff boxes were installed at the plots’ edge to collect winter snow. In the spring of 2021, the snowmelt in each box was pumped out, and volume was recorded until all snow in the boxes had melted. Concentrations of PTE and other cations and pH were measured in a subsample of the snowmelt. The snowmelt from the manured field had higher Ni, Se, and V loads than that from the non-manured field. There were no significant differences in snowmelt PTE loads between the amended soils and the unamended controls at each field. Although not statistically significant, the Epsom salt-amended treatment resulted in a 75% reduction in Se loading and a 44% reduction in V loading, while the gypsum-amended treatment showed a 38% reduction in Ni loading compared to the unamended treatment in the manured soil. Overall, our findings from a single season using both manured and non-manured fields suggest that alum, gypsum, and Epsom salt additions did not significantly alter the mobility of the studied PTEs during the spring snowmelt period.