Assessing Bioavailability of Metals in Biosolids-Treated Soils

This project investigated methods to assess the bioavailability of metals in plants grown in biosolids-amended soils. The resulting report provides biosolids land application planners and practitioners a clear conceptual understanding of how metals in the biosolids-amended soils may be dissolved and absorbed by plants. The project team developed a mathematical expression to describe the plant-availability of metals, developed a method to evaluate that plant-availability by laboratory-based soil extraction using organic acids, and demonstrated the usefulness of the method with two examples where biosolids were applied for a long period of time. Published by WERF. 204 pages.

Originally funded as WERF project 97-REM-5.