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Updated: Feb 4, 2026

Methods of Soil Resampling to Monitor Changes in the Chemical Concentrations of Forest Soils
Published on: November 25, 2016
Distinctive distributions and migrations of 239+240Pu and 241Am in Chinese forest, grassland and desert soils
Youyi Ni1, Zhongtang Wang2, Qiuju Guo3
1State Key Laboratory of Nuclear Physics and Technology, School of Physics, Peking University, Beijing 100871, China; National Institute of Radiological Sciences, National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology, 4-9-1 Anagawa, Inage, Chiba 263-8555, Japan.
Abstract:
The vertical distributions and downward migrations of the global fallout derived 239+240Pu and 241Am in diverse types of Chinese soils (forest, grassland and desert) were studied. The mean 239+240Pu and 241Am activity concentrations in the investigated soil cores were 0.28-0.69 mBq/g and 0.13-0.37 mBq/g, respectively, while the accumulative inventories were 61.53-138.99 Bq/m2 for 239+240Pu and 28.29-61.05 Bq/m2 for 241Am. The convection-dispersion equation (CDE) was used to calculate the migration parameters of 239+240Pu and higher apparent dispersion coefficients (D) were observed for the acidic forest soils compared with the alkaline grassland and desert soils; meanwhile a compartment model was employed to compare the migration of 239+240Pu and 241Am in successive soil layers which showed that the migration behaviors of 239+240Pu and 241Am were rather similar; both velocities were less than 0.3 cm/y in diverse types of soils and these findings were compatible with those of short-term laboratory simulation experiments in China.
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