Scholarly record
NATURAL ZEOLITES AS AMENDMENTS FOR ENHACING SOIL RESILIENCE
Abstract
Soil resilience is known as the ability to resist and recover from exposure to contaminants, climate change, erosion, anthropogenic activities and intensive use of resources, in order to maintain vital processes such as nutrient cycling, water retention, and structural stability. To remediate the affected soils, several integrated strategies, including bioremediation, hydrological management and the use of amendments can be applied. The usage of natural amendments represents a sustainable path for improving soil properties, and consequently increasing resilience. Natural zeolites are broadly acknowledged as adaptable materials with considerable potential in environmental applications because of their special physicochemical characteristics, crystalline structure and high cation exchange capacity. In this study, a natural zeolite extracted by Zeolites Group within the perimeter of the Persani Mountains (45.750257 latitude, 25.371395 longitude) was characterized and used as promising amendment material for remediate an affected soil. The main physicochemical characteristics of zeolites were: the pH (potentiometric method) with value ranging between 8.75 and 9.19, the cation exchange capacity (CEC), determined using the ammonium chloride extraction method, was 238 ?mol(e)/g, water content (assessed by gravimetric method), was 1%. The mineralogical composition, examined by X-ray diffraction (XRD) highlighted clinoptiolite (96%), quartz (1%), muscovitte illite (2%) and hematit (1%), as well as a complex chemical composition, examined by X-ray fluorescence spectrometry (XRF), with the most present components SiO2 (64.55%) and Al2O3 (12.87%). The soil affected by exposure to contaminants, erosion, and anthropogenic activities, was initially characterized, highlighting the main parameters such pH, with values ranging from 7.685 to 8.020, CEC values between 179.1 - 303.5 ?mol(e)/g, water holding capacity with values between 0.36 and 0.95 g H2O/g dry soil and density ranging between 0.954 - 1.140 g/cm3. The soil samples were amended with zeolites and were subjected to a new series of analyses for the same parameters. The results obtained highlight important increases in pH, CEC and WHC. These results substantiate the suitability of zeolites as effective natural amendments for enhancing soil resilience and support their use in sustainable agricultural practices.
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