COMPARATIVE SR90 CONTENT OF AGRICULTURAL CROPS GROWN IN A CONTAMINATED SOIL

Abstract

In a greenhouse study in which thirty-six species of plants, including cereal crops, forage crops, and vegetable crops, were grown in a soil contaminated with Sr90, considerable variation was found in the Sr90 content of samples of botanically unrelated species. The Sr90 content varied directly with the calcium content of plant samples, and consequently the Sr90/g. Ca was reasonably constant for most species when similar morphological parts of the plants were compared. Cereal grains were lower in Sr90 content that were the straw samples whether the results were expressed on the basis of a unit dry weight of sample, or a unit weight of Ca in the sample. As a group, legumes contained higher amounts of both Ca and Sr90 than did grasses. Forage grasses were similar in Sr90 content to the straw of cereals. Although the tops of root crops contained more Sr90 than did the roots on a unit dry-weight basis, the roots contained more Sr90/g.Ca. The Sr90 contents of potato tubers and cereal grains were among the lowest of the samples measured.