Effect of fluorine on plants as determined by soil nutrition and fumigation studies

Book · Tue Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 1952

OSTI ID:5473941

Daines, R H; Leone, I; Brennan, E

Plants may absorb fluorine from the atmosphere and from the soil, thereby accumulating abnormally high fluorine contents that result in the development of typical symptoms of fluorine toxicity. Fluorine analyses of leaves and roots of plants grown in New Jersey soils have supplied a means of distinguishing between fluorine coming from the atmosphere or from the substrate, in as much as the distribution gradient in the plant is characteristic of the source of toxicity. Atmospheric fluorine results in a high leaf and low root fluorine content; soil fluorine causes a high leaf and even higher root content. Studies have shown that plants vary according to species in the minimum concentration of fluorine necessary to produce visible injury, in their capacity for fluorine uptake, and in the relation between fluorine content and extent of injury. Nutritional studies in sand and solution culture have shown that plants in an optimum growing condition with respect to supplies of N, Ca, and P tend to be more susceptible to fluorine injury from the soil and, to a lesser extent, from the atmosphere than plants with unbalanced nutrition. In soil studies it was found that as the pH of the soil was increased, the degree of fluorine toxicity and the amount of fluorine absorbed by plants were minimized. Moisture was found to be of great importance in determining the extent of plant injury from atmospheric fluorine. Conditions conducive to greater degree of injury and fluorine absorption are high atmospheric humidity, turgidity of the plant, and wetting of the plant surfaces. Following an exposure to fluorine in solution or in the atmosphere, a loss occurred in the fluorine content of plant leaves which was greater than could be accounted for from a dilution by growth. 4 references, 4 figures, 6 tables.

• OSTI ID: 5473941
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

500200 -- Environment
Atmospheric-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
510200 -- Environment
Terrestrial-- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport-- (-1989)
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
560303* -- Chemicals Metabolism & Toxicology-- Plants-- (-1987)
63 RADIATION, THERMAL, AND OTHER ENVIRON. POLLUTANT EFFECTS ON LIVING ORGS. AND BIOL. MAT.
ABSORPTION
AIR POLLUTION
ALKALINE EARTH METALS
ATMOSPHERIC CHEMISTRY
BIOLOGICAL EFFECTS
BIOLOGICAL INDICATORS
BUCKWHEAT
CALCIUM
CEREALS
CHEMISTRY
ECOLOGICAL CONCENTRATION
ELEMENTS
FEDERAL REGION II
FLUORINE
FOOD
FRUITS
GRASS
HALOGENS
HUMIDITY
LAND POLLUTION
LEAVES
LEGUMINOSAE
MAIZE
METALS
NEW JERSEY
NICOTIANA
NITROGEN
NONMETALS
NORTH AMERICA
PEACHES
PEPPERS
PH VALUE
PHASEOLUS
PHOSPHORUS
PLANTS
POLLUTION
ROOTS
SOIL CHEMISTRY
SOILS
SPINACH
TOMATOES
TOXICITY
USA
VEGETABLES