Using wood chips for the protection of plants and soil from the harmful effects of road salt
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ORIGINAL ARTICLE
Using wood chips for the protection of plants and soil from the harmful effects of road salt Wojciech Spisak1 · Andrzej Chlebicki2 · Konrad Wołowski2 · Mateusz Szar1 · Jarosław Kozak1 · Mariusz Kaszczyszyn1 Received: 22 February 2019 © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract In this study, the use of a new system made of natural wood absorbers (Salix viminalis) is proposed as a tool to protect plants, groundwater and soil from the adverse effects of de-icing salt. The toxic effects of road de-icing salt on soils, groundwater and plant growth have concerned environmental scientists, especially ecologists, for decades and have already been the subject of many studies. In terms of both time and cost, sodium chloride is widely regarded as the most effective chemical for de-icing roads and pavements. The protection of roadside plants is mainly achieved by using physical barriers with a limited capacity to retain road salt. Willow chips were packed into three systems: separated micro-columns, separated micro-columns with retention cups, and a monolayer column. Each system eliminated some of the salt from a brine solution such that only low-salinity water penetrated into the soil. The efficiency of road salt uptake varied from 31–95% depending on the system. The efficiency of the system was determined based on the salt content measured in the absorber collected after winter. Soil contamination by de-icing salt and the migration of different ions in groundwater were beyond the scope of this study.
1 Introduction Rising concentrations of inorganic salts in soils are caused by many different human activities, such as agricultural irrigation and fertilization as well as the use of salt de-icers for Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (https://doi.org/10.1007/s00107-020-01563-4) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. * Jarosław Kozak [email protected] Wojciech Spisak [email protected] Andrzej Chlebicki [email protected] Konrad Wołowski [email protected] Mateusz Szar [email protected] Mariusz Kaszczyszyn [email protected] 1
Research and Development Centre, Alcor Ltd, Kępska 12, 45‑130 Opole, Poland
W. Szafer Institute of Botany, Polish Academy of Sciences, Lubicz 46, 31‑512 Kraków, Poland
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the maintenance of pavements and roads in winter. The toxic effects of salinity on soils (Davies 2017) and plant growth have concerned environmental scientists for decades (Ramakrishna and Viraraghavan 2005) and have been the topic of many studies (Bryson and Barker 2002; Cunningham et al. 2008; Czerniawska-Kusza et al. 2004; Hawkins 1971). Sodium chloride is the most common and least expensive de-icing salt used for winter road maintenance both in Europe and the US. Studies have shown that the accumulation of deicing salts in urban soils is a very difficult process to control (Zuber 2015). City and road engineers are tasked with maintaining a technically well-functioning town, and the use of road salt is an impor
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