Sorption Studies of Radioiodine on Soils with Special References to Soil Microbial Biomass

Abstract

In batch experiments with two types of soils, chernozem and podzol, radioiodine (125I) showed an initial rapid sorption, followed by a long and slow further increase. Very little sorption (Rd < 1) was detected in clay minerals. Generally, higher. Revalues were observed for the chernozem soil, characterized by a higher amount of organic substance and of soil biomass. The sorption process was predominantly irreversible, the isotherms were linear at low ion concentrations and deviated from linearity starting at 10-5 mmol - ml-1. Sorption ratio was found to increase with increasing volume to mass ratio. The composition of liquid phases (bidistilled water, synthetic soil water, rain water) highly affected iodine sorption. In experiments with KBr solution, the sorption of I “ was found to be strongly preferred to Br”. Incubation of soil samples under varied conditions (decreased or increased soil biomass, 02-concentration, incubation temperature, soil water content and storage conditions) delivered indications for the participation of soil microflora in iodine immobilization. Test with isolated soil bacteria and fungi showed that radioiodine can be incorporated by soil microorganisms under certain conditions only: Considerable uptake of radioiodine was found in washed (NaCl, CaCl2) cells with both bacteria and fungi, but no incorporation was detected into cells incubated with radioiodine in the culture medium. © 1991, Walter de Gruyter. All rights reserved.