Selenium in soils and plants of the Jordan Valley

Abstract

The selenium (Se) content of plants and soils in the northern part of the Jordan Valley, a semi-arid region, was determined by a fluorometric method. Leguminosae, Gramineae, and Cruciferae were found to contain the highest amounts of Se. Of the Leguminosae, Alhagi maurorum contained 4·70 μg Se/g and Prosopis farcta from the north end of the Dead Sea and North Shunah contained 0·55 and 600 μg Se/g, respectively. Of the Gramineae, Cynodon dactylon, Hordcum spontaneum , Setaria verticillata, and Sorghum halepense contained 0·08 to 4·0, 5·26, 10·48 and 3·44 μg Se/g, respectively. Sinapsis alba (Cruciferae) contained 12·67 μg Se/g. Other families found to have less than 1 μg Se/g are represented by Chenopodium murale (Chenopodiaceae) and Silene conoidea (Caryophyllaceae). The Se content of C. dactylon was positively correlated with total Se in the soil. The water-soluble Se in the soils was 0·0025 μg/g (pH 8·01–8·12) around the Dead Sea and 0·107 μg/g (pH 7·60–7·80) in North Shunah. The corresponding average total Se was 1·115 and 4·043 μg/g in these two locations, respectively.