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ACCUMULATION OF ATMOSPHERIC SULFUR BY PLANTS AND SULFUR-SUPPLYING CAPACITY OF SOILS
Citation:
Noggle, J. AND H. Jones. ACCUMULATION OF ATMOSPHERIC SULFUR BY PLANTS AND SULFUR-SUPPLYING CAPACITY OF SOILS. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C., EPA/600/7-79/109.
Description:
The Tennessee Valley Authority conducted studies to measure the amount of sulfur (S) that is transferred from the atmosphere to agro-ecosystems and to determine the S-supplying capacity of soils in the Tennessee Valley. Three techniques were tested for determining the fractional contribution of the soil and the atmosphere to the total S content in field-grown plants. Soybeans, cotton, and fescue were grown in equal quantities of the same soil with a low sulfur content at three field locations and in a greenhouse with charcoal-filtered air. Technique III, which provided a direct method for calculating the amount of plant S that was derived from the soil at any location, proved to be satisfactory for measuring the amount of atmospheric S accumulated by plants. Cotton grown 4 and 3 km from coal-fired power plants accumulated 125 and 240 mg S per 100 g, but fescue accumulated only 65 and 58 mg S per 100 g at the same locations. Cotton grown near the power plants produced significantly more biomass than that grown at a location remote to sources of SO2. The S-supplying capacity of selected soils was evaluated by measuring the rate of S accumulation by fescue grown in a greenhouse with charcoal-filtered air. The rate of S mineralization in soil collected from a depth of 0 to 30 cm at five sites was about 1 mg per kilogram of soil during the 27 weeks of plant growth.