Short-term Effect of Phosphogypsum on Soil Chemical Properties

Short-term effect of phosphogypsum on soil properties including acidification, salinity and metal availability were investigated under laboratory and field conditions. Phosphogypsum and mixtures of phosphogypsum and compost were added to soil and incubated in a laboratory condition with 15% moisture content. Phosphogypsum treatments were 2.5 and 5.0 g/kg soil and in the treatments of phosphogypsum and compost mixture 10 g of compost was added additionally. After the 30 days of incubation, an additional phosphogypsum and/or compost were added to the remaining soils at the same rates of the first treatments. pH, electrical conductivity, and available hazardous elements were measured periodically during the incubation. Field experiment was conducted in a plastic film house of mellon with four treatments of phosphogypsum and compost mixtures - 25+125, 50+125, 50+250 and 100+250 kg/165 $m^2$. pH, electrical conductivity, and hazardous elements in soil and total hazardous elements in leaf were measured. In the laboratory experiment, after 30 days of the first phosphogypsum application, soil pHs were lowered by 0.7-0.8 units. After the second treatment of phosphogypsum 0.2 units of additional acidification occurred. However, acidification was not observed in the soils treated with mixtures of phosphogypsum and compost. In the laboratory experiment, phosphogypsum treatments increased electrical conductivity very significantly. In field experiment, pH and electrical conductivity of soils treated with phosphogypsum were nearly the same as those of soil not treated with phosphogypsum. Since soil condition in the field study was an open system, the free acids and salts derived from phosphogypsum could be diffused down with water leaching through the soil profile and then any significant acidification or salt accumulation in the topsoil could not be observed. In both laboratory and field experiments, levels of available hazardous elements in soils treated with phosphogypsum were quite low and not different from the levels found in the control soil. Results obtained from this study suggest that application of phosphogypsum at appropriate rates on agricultural land appears of no concern in terms of acidity, salinity and hazardous element content of soil.