Taking into account the importance of distribution and transfer of radionuclides in the soil-water-plant system, especially in agricultural fields, in this study, natural radionuclide determination in regosol-type soil was performed. | Research Article Turk J Agric For 34 (2010) 539-546 © TÜBİTAK doi: Distribution of natural radionuclides in anthrosol-type soil Ivana VUKAŠINOVIĆ1,*, Aleksandar ĐORĐEVIĆ1, Miloš B. RAJKOVIĆ1, Dragana TODOROVIĆ2, Vladimir B. PAVLOVIĆ1 1 Faculty of Agriculture, Nemanjina 6, 11080 Belgrade, University of Belgrade - SERBIA 2Vinča Institute of Nuclear Science, 522, 11001 Belgrade - SERBIA Received: Abstract: Taking into account the importance of distribution and transfer of radionuclides in the soil-water-plant system, especially in agricultural fields, in this study, natural radionuclide determination in regosol-type soil was performed. The correlations between main soil properties and the contents of natural isotopes 238U, 226Ra, 232Th, and 40K in agricultural soil and their distribution through the soil depth was studied. For determination of natural radionuclide activity concentration, we used the CANBERRA HPGe detector, applying the gamma spectrometry method. The investigation was performed on an experimental peach tree field characterized by a anthrosol type of soil, derived from the chernozem type of natural soil. The effect of measured soil properties on activity concentration levels was analyzed by simple and multiple linear regression analysis. Considering the linear model, in our soil profiles of 0-80 cm depth, clay content was 238 226 40 positively related with U, Ra, and K, and about 30% of the variation of those radionuclides was explained. Sand 238 226 232 40 226 fraction was negatively related with U, Ra, Th, and K and the correlation was medium, except for Ra (r = ). The joint effect of pH, carbonates, humus, clay, and sand contents on natural radionuclide distribution in the 0-80 cm layer was found by multiple linear regression analysis. Radionuclide behavior was explained by the R-squared statistic. The investigations of uranium distribution showed that when the soil layers of 0-20 cm and 60-80 cm are .
