Effects Of Biosolids Addition On The Total and Plant Available Copper In The Contaminated Stamp Sands Of Torch Lake: An Incubation Study.
Poster Number 2730
Wednesday, November 6, 2013
Tampa Convention Center, East Hall, Third Floor
Virinder Sidhu1, Dibyendu Sarkar2, Sudipta Rakshit2 and Rupali Datta3, (1)Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ (2)Earth and Environmental Studies, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ (3)Biological Sciences, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI
Stamp sands in the Torch Lake site in Upper Peninsula, Michigan are heavily contaminated with copper (Cu) owing to extensive mining activities in the past. To develop a vegetative cover for reducing erosion of stamp sands into the Torch Lake, it is important to understand the geochemically labile pool of Cu under plant-growing conditions. Since stamp sands are poor in nutrients for plant growth, the addition of environmentally-friendly green amendments such as biosolids is necessary. Here, we report the effects of biosolids addition on the geochemical speciation of copper (Cu) in a laboratory incubation study, in which different rates of biosolids (0, 0.8, 1.6, and 3.2 g biosolids/ kg soil) were added to 100 g of stamp sand and incubated for 60 days. These incubation mixtures were kept moist by adding water periodically to 70% water holding capacity. Samples were collected periodically after 0, 15, 30, and 60 days and analyzed for total-Cu and Cu in the different fractions according to a sequential extraction procedure. Results indicated that only minor fraction of Cu partitioned in the soluble/ available fraction.