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Filters: Tags: Nitrate (X) > Types: Journal Citation (X) > partyWithName: McKeon, Casey A (X)

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Two native desert shrubs were evaluated for their growth potential and water and nitrogen uptake patterns over a nitrate-contaminated aquifer at a former uranium ore-processing facility in northeastern Arizona. Sarcobatus vermiculatus and Atriplex canescens are obligate and facultative phreatophytes, respectively, that dominate the local desert plant community. The main questions we addressed were: (1) Are these shrubs able to use water or nitrogen from the alluvial aquifer? (2) If so, does grazing interfere with that ability of shrubs? (3) What would be the ideal strategy to take up N from the plume and prevent its expansion and recharge using shrubs? ?18O and ?D isotope signatures from water in plant stem samples...
A 1.6 ha plot of Atriplex canescens (fourwing saltbush) was established in a desert soil at a former uranium ore-processing plant, near Monument Valley, Arizona, to remediate nitrate and ammonium N contamination. The plants were irrigated to stimulate growth and N uptake. However, NO3? loss from the soil was unexpectedly rapid. Initially, the soil contained approximately 180 mg kg?1 NO3??N distributed at depths up to 4.6 m, but concentrations decreased to 80 mg kg?1 after 41 months. Losses occurred throughout the plot at all soil depths. NH4?N remained unchanged (ca.180 mg kg?1). Soil moisture was generally below field capacity and soil?water flux showed no net downward movement over the course of the study. A salt...