Distributions of alkali and alkaline earth metals in several agricultural plants

Institute for Environmental Sciences, Department of Radioecology, 1-7 lenomae, Obuchi, Rokkasho-mura, Kamikita-gun, Aomori 039-3212, Japan

Abstract

Several agricultural plants were collected from an experimental field and the concentrations of alkali and alkaline earth metals were determined in different plant components. The concentrations of Cs in older leaves of rice and cabbage plants were higher than those in younger ones. The K concentrations in rice leaf blades decreased with withering, and these were similar in cabbage leaves. The distribution pattern of K. concentrations in the plant components was similar to that of Rb, however that of Cs was different. The distributions of Ca, Ba and Sr concentrations in the rice leaf blades followed a relatively similar pattern, whereas that of Mg was different. The concentrations of alkaline earth metals in older leaves of a cabbage plant were higher than those in younger ones. The percentage distributions of Cs and Sr in non-edible plant components were 93 and 99 % in rice plants, and 77 and 91 % in cabbage leaves, respectively. These results showed that the non-edible plant components were important for understanding the transfer of the alkali and alkaline earth metals and radionuclides in the soil-plant system. These elements could serve as natural analogues to predict the distributions of ¹³⁷Cs and ⁹⁰Sr in different plant components.