Tuesday, 8 November 2005
13

Leaching Losses of Trace Elements from Soils Amended with Poultry Litter and Flyash.

Paramasivam Sivapatham1, Karen Richards1, Akila Cooper1, Kenneth Sajwan1, and Ashok Alva2. (1) Savannah State University, Dept. of Natural Sci. & Mathematics, Savannah State Univ PO Box 20600, Savannah, GA 31404, (2) USDA-ARS, 24106 N. Bunn Road, Prosser, WA 99350-9687

Poultry litter is frequently used in the agricultural sector as a soil amendment to improve soil fertility and productivity. Leaching losses of major nutrient elements such as N, P, and K and their potential impact on surface and groundwater was subject of study for long time. Contamination of drinking water with Pb, Cr, and Cd are of serious concern and very little attention was focused on leaching losses of trace elements such as Zn, Cu, Cd, Cr, Pb and Ni from soils amended with poultry litter. A study was conducted to evaluate the leaching losses of selected trace elements from soil columns amended with varying rates (0, 4.94, 10.35, and 20.70 Mg ha-1) of poultry litter alone or in combination of 1:1 mixture of poultry litter and fly ash. Leaching losses was evaluated on a weekly basis with 6-drying period by collecting leachate from soil columns and this evaluation continued until passing 14-pore volume of water at 0.5 pore volume per leaching event. In this presentation, special attention is focused on leaching of Zn, Cu, Cd, Cr, Pb, and Ni from 30-cm soils columns amended with poultry litter and fly ash and attempt was made explain how the soil type, rate and type of amendment, the amount of pore volume of water influence the leaching losses of these selected trace elements.

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