137Cs and 40K soil-to-plant relationship in a seminatural grassland of the Giulia Alps, Italy.

To examine the soil-to-plant transfer of 137Cs and 40K, we performed a study based on sampling of natural soil and plants from an alpine pasture site situated in the Giulia Alps, Italy, during July 1997. High 137Cs activity was present in the upper most soil layer, and decreased one order of magnitude at a depth of 10 cm. An opposite gradient was observed for 40K. Simultaneous sampling of soil and plant material was performed in order to analyse transfer factor (TF) values. In spite of homogeneous 137Cs activities in soil, grass samples showed a high variability. A negative correlation was detected between 40K- and 137Cs-activities in plants. TF values for 137Cs were highly variable, thus suggesting that this parameter would be independent of 137Cs soil activity. Lower variability was observed for 40K TFs values. Our results suggest that TFs are highly variable parameters that appear to be independent on radionuclide soil activity. Because soil and plant characteristics strongly affect TF values, caution is necessary when TF values are used as the sole parameter to predict radionuclide uptake by plants in semi-natural ecosystems.