Changes of Available Cadmium Over time and its Relationship with Soil Properties in Highly Calcareous Soils

Cadmium (Cd) is of special importance among heavy metals because its toxicity to the plant is 20 times higher than other heavy metals. The present study was conducted to evaluate the trend of available soil Cd changes over time and its relationship with soil properties. Treatments consisted of 13 soil samples and two Cd rates (12.5 and 25 mg kg-1) as a factorial in a complete randomized design with two replications. DTPA extractable Cd was measured upon 5, 10, 20, 30, 60 and 90 days after adding Cd rates to the soils. The results showed that DTPA extractable Cd was increased as Cd application rates was raised in all soils. DTPA extractable Cd was decreased over time; however, at the end of the experiment, much of the added cadmium to the soil remained in use. Among the soil properties, calcium carbonate showed a significant negative correlation with DTPA extractable Cd in most of the incubation times in both Cd rates. DTPA extractable Cd also showed a significant negative correlation with pH and soil sand and a significant positive correlation with OC. Also, the results of the fitting of cadmium adsorption data with the kinetic equations showed that the exponential function equation was the most suitable kinetics descriptive equation for variations in cadmium adsorption in the studied soils.