Sr ISOTOPIC EVIDENCE FOR STUDYING THE SALINIZATION OF SOILS: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE SAN VITALE PINEWOOD (RAVENNA)

Authors

  • Umberto Masi Dip.to di Scienze della Terra, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Roma
  • Francesca Castorina IGAG-CNR, c/o Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra, Università di Roma “La Sapienza”, Roma

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2281-4485/3818

Keywords:

Sr isotopes, soils, salinization, San Vitale Pinewood

Abstract

In the frame of a multidisciplinary project of research on the San Vitale Pinewood ecosystem, north of Ravenna, the Sr isotope study of a soil profile developed on an old coastal dune aiming at detecting the effect of salinization is presented. The Sr isotope ratios of the bulk soil samples decreased significantly from upper (0.717) to lower (0.712) horizons because of the abundant marine salts deposited by the brackish water present in the deep soil. While the main source of Sr in the upper horizons is the silicates, especially the feldspaths contained in the old dune sediments; in contrast, Sr in the lower horizons is significantly also of evaporitic origin (0.707-0.709). This latter is dominantly the strontium bio-available to the plants.

References

ABERG G. (1995) The use of natural strontium isotopes as tracers in environmental studies. Water Air Soil Pollution79:309–322.

CAPO R.C., STEWART B.W., CHADWICK O.A. (1998) Strontium isotopes as tracers of ecosystem processes: theory and methods. Geoderma 82:197–225.

CASTORINA F., MASI U. (2007) Use of Sr isotopes to constrain Sr (and Ca) sources in a Mediterranean soil profile near Muravera (SE Sardinia). Acta Vulcanologica 19 (1-2):103-108.

CASTORINA F., MASI U. (2008) The Sr-isotope composition of soils: a case study from Muravera (SE Sardinia, Italy). Journal of Geochemical Exploration 96:86–93.

CONTICELLI S., D’ANTONIO M., PINARELLI L., CIVETTA, L. (2002) Source contamination and mantle heterogeneity in the genesis of Italian potassic and ultrapotassic volcanic rocks: Sr-Nd-Pb isotope data from Roman Province and Southern Tuscany. Mineralogy and Petrology 74:189-22.

HODELL D.A., MEAD G.A., MUELLER P.A. (1990) Variation in the strontium isotopic composition of seawater (8 Ma to present): implications for chemical weathering rates and dissolved fluxes to the oceans. Chemical Geology 80:291-307.

McARTHUR J.M., HOWARTH R.J., BAILEY T.R. (2001) Strontium isotope stratigraphy: Lowess Version 3: Best-fit to the marine Sr-isotope curve for 0 to 509 Ma and accompanying look-up table for deriving numerical age. Journal of Geology 109:155–170.

NÉGREL P., CASANOVA J., ARANYOSSY J.F. (2001) Strontium isotope systematics used to decipher the origin of groundwaters sampled from granitoids: the Vienne Case (France). Chemical Geology 177:287–308.

STEWART B.W., CAPO R.C., CHADWICK O.A. (1998) Quantitative strontium isotope models for weathering, pedogenesis and biogeochemical cycling. Geoderma 82:173–195.

Downloads

Published

2009-12-20

How to Cite

Masi, U., & Castorina, F. (2009). Sr ISOTOPIC EVIDENCE FOR STUDYING THE SALINIZATION OF SOILS: AN EXAMPLE FROM THE SAN VITALE PINEWOOD (RAVENNA). EQA - International Journal of Environmental Quality, 2(2), 73–77. https://doi.org/10.6092/issn.2281-4485/3818

Issue

Vol. 2 (2009)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2009 Umberto Masi, Francesca Castorina

Copyrights and publishing rights of all the texts on this journal belong to the respective authors without restrictions.

Articles published since 2020 are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License:

Creative Commons License

 

Previous articles are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License:

Creative Commons License