Soil-to-Plant Transfers Factor of Natural Radionuclides in Groundnut Crops Grown on Soils with Different Levels of Backg
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RESEARCH ARTICLE
Soil-to-Plant Transfers Factor of Natural Radionuclides in Groundnut Crops Grown on Soils with Different Levels of Background Radioactivity N. M. Yussuf1 • M. A. Saeed1,3 • H. Wagiran1 • I. Hossain2
Received: 21 May 2015 / Revised: 4 November 2018 / Accepted: 19 December 2018 The National Academy of Sciences, India 2019
Abstract The plant/soil transfer factors (TFs) of uranium (238U), thorium (232Th) and potassium (40K) were measured in groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) at five different natural background soils. The TFs (on a dry weight basis) were in the range of 0.003–0.473, 0.003–0.548 and 0.430–1.479 for 238U, 232Th and 40K, respectively. The concentrations of 238U in groundnuts were in the order: roots [ pods [ seeds [ leaves, while for 232Th the order was roots [ pods [ seeds [ leaves and for 40K the order was roots [ seeds [ pods [ leaves. The uptake of 40K in groundnuts showed an inverse relationship with the uptake of 238U. We observed that among three natural radionuclides, the 40K transfer factor values are higher than those of 238U and 232Th in all cases. Keywords Natural radionuclide Groundnut Transfer factor Uranium Thorium Potassium
1 Introduction The naturally occurring radionuclides are found everywhere around us, and these radionuclides enter into our bodies by inhalation of radon and thoron gases [1, 2] and
& I. Hossain [email protected] 1
Physics Department, Faculty of Science, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, 81310 Skudai, Johor, Malaysia
2
Department of Physics, Rabigh College of Science and Arts, King Abdulaziz University, Rabigh 21911, Saudi Arabia
3
Physics Department, Division of Science and Technology, University of Education, College Road, Township, Lahore, Pakistan
by ingestion [3, 4]. Therefore, it is easy to comprehend the environmental behaviour (distribution pathways, mobility, transfers, etc.) of natural radionuclides. The knowledge about these natural radionuclides is useful as a natural analogue to understand the long-term behaviour of materials and processes in developing and testing models [5]. Radionuclides migrate and accumulate in the cultivated soils through a complex process. This process involves leaching, capillary rise, runoff, sorption, root uptake as well as re-suspension into the atmosphere [5]. The transport through the food chain of radionuclides and other elements are estimated by transfer factor (TF). TF is a plant/substrate concentration ratio [6] that is used to estimate transfer to a plant from its substrate under equilibrium conditions [5]. There are many factors that influence the TF values, i.e. soil characteristics, climatic conditions, plants, part of the plant concerned, the physicochemical form of radionuclides and the effect of the competitive elements. In soil, there are many primordial radionuclides such as U, Th and Ra. Their concentrations vary due to different parent materials [7]. Soil–plant–man is recognized as one of the major pathways for transfer of radionuclides to the human being [8–10]. These naturally
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