The goal of this study is to shed more light on the influence of fertilisation on radionuclide transfer from soil to crops, which is a significant ecological issue in present-day agriculture due to the intensive use of soil amendments. Research on this subject has not been extensive, hence there are still numerous open questions that require an interdisciplinary approach involving agroecology and radioecology. Maize was chosen for our investigation because it has been used, in considerable quantities and worldwide, as both food and feed, which makes it part of numerous food chains with humans as final consumers. The agricultural part of the experiment was carried out on an acidic soil in northwestern Croatia, and it was based on seven treatments with different levels of NPK fertilisation. Radionuclide activity concentrations in sampled soil, stem, and grain were measured by means of high-resolution γ-ray spectrometry. We found that the radiological properties of the soil were not affected by the addition of the fertiliser. Soil-to-stem uptake for radionuclides of the whole ²³²Th decay chain was first suppressed by mild fertilisation, and then, at higher fertiliser concentrations, it stayed low and became independent of fertilisation level. The same effect was observed for the ²³⁸U decay chain before gaseous ²²²Rn. We present arguments in favour of the cause of the observed suppression being radionuclide complexation with constituents of the fertiliser. However, the concentration of ²¹⁰Pb in stem did not depend on fertilisation, which was most probably a consequence of the decay of airborne ²²²Rn and the deposition of its progenies onto stem. Radionuclide translocation from stem to grain did not depend on fertilisation either, and it was appreciable only for ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs. In grain, radionuclide concentrations were lower than in stem. Overall, in our case, fertilisation had positive effects, reducing the presence of radionuclides in the maize while having no detectable impact on the radiological properties of the soil. This finding may have implications for future work, especially regarding concerns about the impact of soil amendments on food production.

这项研究的目的是更多地了解施肥对放射性核素从土壤到农作物转移的影响，由于大量使用土壤改良剂，这是当今农业中的一个重要生态问题。关于该主题的研究尚未广泛，因此仍然存在许多悬而未决的问题，需要涉及农业生态学和放射生态学的跨学科方法。选择玉米作为我们的调查对象是因为它在食品和饲料中已被大量使用，并且在全世界范围内都被使用，这使其成为人类最终消费者的众多食物链的一部分。该实验的农业部分是在克罗地亚西北部的酸性土壤上进行的，该实验基于7种氮磷钾肥水平不同的处理方法。采样土壤，茎，土壤中的放射性核素活度浓度 谷物和谷物通过高分辨率γ射线光谱法测量。我们发现添加肥料不会影响土壤的放射特性。整个土壤放射性核素的吸收²³² Th衰变链首先受到温和的施肥抑制，然后在较高的肥料浓度下保持较低水平，并不受施肥水平的影响。对于气态²²² Rn之前的²³⁸ U衰变链，观察到了相同的效果。我们提出支持观察到的抑制原因的论点是放射性核素与肥料成分的复合。但是，茎中²¹⁰ Pb的浓度与施肥无关，这很可能是由于空气中²²² Rn的衰变及其子代在茎上的沉积所致。放射性核素从茎到籽粒的转运也不依赖于施肥，仅在⁴⁰K和¹³⁷ Cs。在谷物中，放射性核素浓度低于茎中。总体而言，在我们的案例中，施肥具有积极作用，减少了玉米中放射性核素的存在，而对土壤的放射特性没有可检测到的影响。这一发现可能会对未来的工作产生影响，尤其是对土壤改良剂对粮食生产的影响的担忧。