Radiocaesium soil-to-plant transfer in tropical environments

Abstract

In this work, soil-to-plant transfer factors of radiocaesium are predicted based on soil properties such as pH, organic matter content, exchangeable K + and clay content valid for the tropical environments in Bangladesh, China and Japan, and using a previously published model. Due to insufficient data of soil properties in the selected regions, the average values of pH, organic matter content, exchangeable K + and clay content were taken as the input model parameters within the ranges given for Asia. Nevertheless, a complete set of soil properties of Japanese soils was used to compare the measured and calculated TF values of radiocaesium for radish. The calculated TF values for radiocaesium are comparable with the measured values especially for leafy parts of a plant. However, calculated values for rice, an important crop in Asia are found to overestimate the measured values due to an overestimate of calculated CECs in soils in the selected regions. The empirical parameters used in the model need to be re-evaluated for the specific part of a plant and/or for a variety of different plants. Alternatively, a general conversion factor for each part of a plant and/or for a variety of different plants for a specific region is suggested for tropical environments.