Trees on contaminated soil : IS THERE A CORRELATION BETWEEN BIOAVAILABLE COMPOUNDS AND UPTAKE IN BIRCHES?

Abstract: In this thesis a method of dry-ashing wood, sequential leaching of soil and analysis with ICP-QMS is tested as a possible way for establishing a correlation between bioavailable compounds in soil and uptake to birches. The total amount of trace elements (V, Sr, Cd, Pb and U) in stem wood and contaminated soils were analysed. The total concentration of metals in the soil was extracted using HCl and HNO3 in warm water bath. Biological availability of inorganic compounds in the soil were established using sequential leaching. The total concentration of metals in stem wood of birches were determined with the use of tree core samples, dry ashing and analysis with ICP-QMS. A rough estimation of each trees’ first 10 years through counting annual tree rings was also made, to be able to see when the tree accumulate most bioavailable elements. No correlation between the bioavailable concentration of elements in the soil and uptake to the birches could be found. Some deductions about where in the tree different elements appear could be done but more samples is needed to make a significant judgement.