MOSCOW, July 9. Safe levels of tellurium in soil have been determined by SFU scientists. According to them, this was done for the first time in the world The study showed that tellurium is more toxic to the environment than previously thought. Tellurium pollution caused by various industries can lead to decreased soil fertility, poisoning of plants and animals, and health problems in humans. The results were published in the journal Emerging Contaminants.
Tellurium, a rare chemical element, today poses a growing threat to ecosystems, as its content in the environment has increased sharply, and its effect on living organisms remains poorly understood, scientists from the Southern Federal University (SFU) said. The main sources of environmental pollution with tellurium are the mining, metallurgical, glass, rubber, electronic, pharmaceutical industries, and solar cell production.
Currently there are territories with a 30 or more times excess of the background tellurium content in the soil. Pollution of the environment with tellurium has led to it being classified as a new pollutant that poses a danger to the environment and humans.
«The ecotoxicity of tellurium was previously underestimated. We have established that it manifests itself at significantly lower excesses of background concentrations in the soil than other heavy metals considered highly toxic, such as mercury, cadmium and lead,» – noted the head of the Department of Ecology and Nature Management at SFedU, Sergei Kolesnikov.
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According to him, soil contamination with tellurium leads to a decrease in soil fertility, which is why agricultural yields fall. In addition, tellurium can enter plants from the soil, and then from plant foods into the bodies of animals and people, causing various diseases.
As a result of the study, SFU scientists established tellurium concentrations in the soil, the excess of which leads to a decrease in fertility. To do this, they simulated contamination with different doses of tellurium, starting with very low (1.5 background concentrations).
The study showed that even minimal amounts of tellurium reduced the activity of soil microorganisms, which play an important role in plant nutrition, by 20-30%. . The activity of microorganisms decreased by 50-70%, and at the highest concentrations of tellurium — by 80-90%. At the same time, tellurium in the form of nitrate turned out to be twice as harmful as in the form of oxide.
Scientists also paid attention to that the negative influence of tellurium increased over time. 10 days after contamination, the activity of microorganisms was 10-20% lower than after 30 days.
According to the researchers, the results of this work can be used to predict environmental risks from environmental pollution with tellurium and develop standards for tellurium content in soils of different properties.
The uniqueness of the results, according to them, lies in the fact that environmentally safe concentrations of tellurium in soil were established for the first time in the world. The use of the research results will contribute to the production of environmentally friendly agricultural products, ensuring food and environmental security in Russia, the authors of the study added.
They used the author’s methodology for assessing the ecotoxicity of pollutants based on the degree of disruption of ecosystem functions of the soil. At this stage, scientists plan to continue work to assess the ecotoxicity of rare chemical elements, the level of pollution of which is steadily increasing, and the potential danger to the environment has not yet been fully studied.
The research was supported by a grant from the Russian Science Foundation and carried out at the Youth Laboratory for Environmental Standardization of Soil Quality, created in the Southern Federal University within the framework of the strategic academic leadership program «Priority 2030» (national project «Science and Universities»).
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