Abstract
Cadmium (Cd) is a toxic metal, which is taken up by plants relatively easily. In Sweden, high Cd levels in soils and crops are encountered in agricultural areas where the soil parent material is rich in the metal. Farmers must produce grain with a Cd concentration below permissible limits, and the milling and food industry rates traceability as increasingly important. In this study, both airborne and proximal gamma ray sensing were tested in an area where high levels of Cd in soils and crops have been recorded. The hypothesis was that the occurrence of Cd in the topsoil and winter wheat grain would follow the variation of 238U so that gamma ray sensing could thereby be used as a fast and cheap method for monitoring Cd in soils and crops. We found that the variability of Cd in the topsoil was considerable in the area and was very well correlated with 238U. It seems possible to delineate areas of winter wheat that have a very low risk of high Cd. A working model for the practical application of the sensing technique is suggested.
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Acknowledgements
Measurements with the Mole were carried out by The Soil Company, Groningen, The Netherlands. Mrs. Ann-Charlotte Nystedt provided the soil data for field B in Fig. 28.2. Financial support was given by the Swedish Foundation for Agricultural Research (SLF), the VL-Stiftelsen Foundation, and Agroväst AB.
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Söderström, M., Eriksson, J. (2010). Gamma Ray Sensing for Cadmium Risk Assessment in Agricultural Soil and Grain: A Case Study in Southern Sweden. In: Viscarra Rossel, R., McBratney, A., Minasny, B. (eds) Proximal Soil Sensing. Progress in Soil Science. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8859-8_28
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-90-481-8859-8_28
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