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Movement of Fe, Mn, Cu and Zn in a sewage sludge-treated soil

This paper is available in a repository.
This paper is available in a repository.

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Preprint: policy unknown
Question mark in circle
Postprint: policy unknown
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Abstract

Restoration of degraded soils with organic wastes could be a feasible practice to minimise erosion in the Mediterranean area. Today the use of sewage sludge to improve the nutrient contents of a soil is a common practice. In order to study the mobility of some elements through the soil, we have designed an experiment that tries to reproduce the behavior of metals in the soil as a part of the non-saturated zone. A controlled experiment in a greenhouse using soil columns was used. A calcareous soil from the south-east of Spain was amended with 30000, 90000 and 180000 kg sludge/ha. Iron, manganese, cupper and zinc were analyzed in soil samples at intervals of 15 cm of depth, during four months. Total, available, exchangeable and soluble forms of these micronutrients were analyzed. Positive effects of organic wastes application have been observed. We found that the use of sewage sludge as fertilizer of this calcareous soil increases the bioavailability of iron, copper and zinc. There are not important displacements and movement of the micronutrients along the soil profile.