Abstract:
As part of the study, the essential importance of the aerial mechanism
of tritium in-take into plants was revealed, and a quantitative assessment of the
parameters characterizing this transfer mechanism was given. It is shown that for
such crops as cucumber, tomato, corn, the proportion of water supplied to the
plant by the aerial mechanism is on average about 30% of the total water absorbed
by the plant. It has been revealed that the ability of plants to absorb water from
the air increases during the growing season. A quantitative assessment of the
parameter characterizing the downward (from the leaves to the roots) ϐlow of
water – the newly introduced coefϐicient Kaps - has been carried out. The Kaps
coefϐicient actually shows the amount of water transferred by the plant by the
downward ϐlow in milliliters per kilogram of green mass per day. The average
value of the Kaps was for the crop: cucumber – 240, tomato – 320, corn – 300 ml /
(kg * day).
The presence of two signiϐicant routes of tritium intake at different concentrations
in its carrier media (soil solution at the root route of entry, air vapors at the aerial
route) leads to an uneven distribution of tritium concentration across organs and
parts of plants. For all plants and at all stages of vegetation, there is an excess of
free water tritium con-centration in leaves over concentrations in stems: 1.4 times
for cucumber culture, 3.6 for tomato, 2.4 for corn. The difference in concentrations
of TFWT in leaves and roots is even more pronounced: 7.6 for cucumber culture,
6.7 for tomato, 3.6 for corn.
The presence of signiϐicant concentrations of tritium of free water in plants, and
especially in the roots, that is, in its part, which usually remains in the soil, as well
as the revealed transition from plants to soil solution under conditions of its aerial
formation shows the importance of a special mechanism of soil contamination
with tritium along the path "water vapor of air – the free water of plants - the soil."
The presence of this mechanism can lead to soil contamination with tritium in the
absence of tritium-contaminated groundwater and surface waters, which, as a
rule, are considered as the main source of pollution by it.
