INFLUENCE OF FERTILIZERS APPLICATION ON MOBILITY OF METALS

Abstract

Metals play an important role in the life of plants and animals, and in small quantities, most of them are necessary for the normal functioning of living organism. However, increased concentrations can also harm the same functions of a living organism. In the soil cover, metals can be contained in various species, which determine their mobility and toxicity. Metals are transferred from soil to plants and then to animal and human organisms only if they are mobile. The mobile fractions include the water-soluble, exchangeable, carbonate, reducible and oxidizable forms and they can migrate from one environment to another and cause a negative cumulative effect. An increase in anthropogenic load leads to an increase in the mobility of metals. A special place is occupied by agricultural activity, which, using various fertilizers, increases the proportion of geochemically mobile species of metals. This work is aimed at studying the effect of fertilization on the mobility of some metals. As part of the work, the soils of the Almaty region (Baiterek village) of the Republic of Kazakhstan were studied by applying various fertilizers (ammonium nitrate and monopotassium phosphate), followed by studying the species of metals and the most toxic radionuclides (polonium-210 and lead-210) according to the method of A. Tessier. Using the fertilizers under investigation insignificantly affects the species of alkali metals, polonium-210, and lead-210. While application of monopotassium phosphate increases the geochemical mobility of sodium and alkaline earth elements due to the transition to the water-soluble and exchangeable fractions, and heavy metals due to the transition to the exchangeable fraction. The obtained data are useful as the basis for the development of recommendations for the application of certain types of fertilizers to reduce the risk of impact on the life and health of the local population without reducing the productivity of agricultural crops.