Background concentrations and adsorption of selenium in tropical soils

• Autor(a) principal: Gabos, Mariana Bassetto
• Data de Publicação: 2012
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações da USP
• Texto Completo: http://www.teses.usp.br/teses/disponiveis/11/11140/tde-20092012-164703/
• topic: Adsorção; Adsorption; Constant capacitance model; Isoterma; Isotherm; Manejo do solo; Modelo de capacitância constante; Selênio; Selenium; Soil management; Solos - Qualidade; Sooils - Quality

Selenium (Se) is a trace element essential to the nutrition of animals. On the other hand, in a narrow concentration range, Se can cause toxicity. The presence of Se in food is related to the concentration of the element in soil. Thus, the knowledge of the Se amount and its behavior in soil are very important to the better manage the environment and to prevent toxicological problems and human deficiency. The objectives of this study were: (i) to quantify the natural content of Se in some Brazilian soils and correlates them with soil attributes; (ii) to evaluate the adsorption of selenite and selenate as a function of pH and Se concentration in tropical soils; (iii) to adjust the constant capacitance model to describe the Se adsorption in tropical soil as compared to empiric models. Se concentrations ranged from <0.08 to 1.61 mg kg-1, with a mean of 0.19 mg kg-1. Concentrations of Se in the samples collected in the superficial layers were positively correlated to cationic exchange capacity, as well as to clay, organic matter and oxide contents of the soils. In the subsurface samples, only pH and aluminum oxide content were correlated with Se concentrations. Most samples with the highest Se concentrations were derived from sedimentary parent material. Se(IV) adsorption was high for all soils, decreased with increasing pH and was strongly correlated to organic matter and Fe and Al oxides contents. On the other hand, Se(VI) adsorption was very low at pH values commonly found in agricultural soils, except for the highly weathered Rhodic Acrudox which was positively correlated with the gibbsite content. The constant capacitance model fit the Se(IV) and Se(VI) adsorption data well, and was similar to Langmuir and Freundlich empirical models. Optimizations of mono and bidentate complexation and surface protonation constant were used for the Se(IV) adsorption data. For Se(VI), optimizations for the two monodentate species were employed.