Chemical Elements in Soil and Plants

The objective of the course is to introduce the students to a role of microelements in the plant nourishments, their distribution in the soil, their toxicity and changes of the plants at their shortage or overdosage.

Knowledge of inorganic and organic chemistry.

Rock and Soil Geochemistry, Bioavailability
Metal Ions and Plant Nutrition(Essentiality,Concentration of Elements in Plants, Toxicity)
Sources of Nutrients for Plants(Rhizosphere, Fertilisers)
Role of Some Elements in Plant Life(Macronutrients, Other Microelements)
Elemental Uptake Processes
Toxic Effect of Metals

LABORATORY PRACTISE

At laboratory practice sessions the students will be intrduced with basic technics of sampling, extraction and analyse of specific microelementes in a vineyard.

Knowledge and understanding
- Geochemistry of rocks and soil (in connection to viticulture)
- Biological usefulness and accessibility of elementrs
- Metal ions such as plant nutrients (mikrokranila) (esencialnost, ion concentration tolerance and toxicity)
- Sources of nutrients (rhizosfera, fertilizers)
- The role of trace elements in plant growth (vine) (macronutrients, micronutrients and other trace elements)
- Review the recommended/allowed levels of micro-macro nutrients for the vines
- Basic Transport Phenomena trace elements in plants-way transmission (the impact on efficiency) -sinergizem-antagonism
- Toxic effects of trace elements
- Basic chemical analyses of elements in soils and plant samples (the meaning of sampling and preparation of samples for analysis)

• Farago, M.E. 1994. Plants and the Chemical Elements; VCH Publishers; New York.
• Siegel, H. 1985. Metal Ions in Biological Systems; Marcel Dekker inc.; New York and Basel. E-version
• Lecture slides
• Articles

Laboratory practice examination, lecture written and oral examination.

Full professor for the field Ekotechnology. He is employed at Institut Jozef Stefen and he part-time professor at UNG.

Selected publications:

MILAČIČ, Radmila, ŠČANČAR, Janez, URBANC, M. Is spectrophotometry a reliable technique for determination of Cr(VI) in leather samples?. J. Soc. Leather Technol. Chem., 1998, =vol. 82, str. 91-94.

MILAČIČ, Radmila, ŠČANČAR, Janez. Determination of hexavalent chromium in lime-treated sewage sludge by anion-exchange fast protein liquid chromatography with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometry detection. Analyst (Lond.), 2000, vol. 125, str. 1938-1942.

ŠČANČAR, Janez, MILAČIČ, Radmila, STRAŽAR, Marjeta, BURICA, Olga. Total metal concentrations and partitioning of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni and Zn in sewage sludge. Sci. total environ.. [Print ed.], 2000, vol. 250, str. 9-19.

ŠČANČAR, Janez, MILAČIČ, Radmila, STRAŽAR, Marjeta, BURICA, Olga, BUKOVEC, Peter. Environmentally safe sewage sludge disposal : the impact of liming on the behaviour of Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Ni, Pb, and Zn. J. environ. monit. (Print), 2001, vol. 3, str. 226-231.

ŠČANČAR, Janez, MILAČIČ, Radmila. A novel approach for speciation of airborne chromium by convective-interaction media fast-monolithic chromatography with electrothermal atomic-absorption spectrometric detection. Analyst (Lond.), 2002, vol. 127, str. 629-633.

MILAČIČ, Radmila, ŠČANČAR, Janez, TUŠEK, Janez. Determination of Cr(VI) in welding fumes by anion-exchange fast protein liquid chromatography with electrothermal atomic absorption spectrometric detection. Anal. bioanal. chem., 2002, vol. 372, str. 549-553.

MILAČIČ, Radmila, ŠČANČAR, Janez. Safe disposal of chromium-rich waste materials. Crit. rev. anal. chem., 2003, vol. 33, str. 69-75.

ZUPANČIČ, Marija, BUKOVEC, Nataša, MILAČIČ, Radmila, ŠČANČAR, Janez. Comparison of various phosphate stabilisation agents for the immobilisation of Ni and Zn in ewage sludge. Water air soil pollut.. [Print ed.], 2004, vol. 156, str. 57-69

ŠČANČAR, Janez, MILAČIČ, Radmila, SÉBY, Fabienne, DONARD, Olivier F. X. Determination of hexavalent chromium in cement by the use of HPLC-ICP-MS, FPLC-ETAAS, spectrophotometry and selective extraction techniques. J. anal. at. spectrom., 2005, vol. 20, str. 871-875.

ZUPANČIČ, Marija, BUKOVEC, Peter, MILAČIČ, Radmila, ŠČANČAR, Janez. Critical evaluation of the use of the hydroxyapatite as a stabilizing agent to reduce the mobility of Zn and Ni in sewage sludge amended soils. Waste manag. (Elmsford). [Print ed.], 2006, vol. 26, str. 1392-1399.

ŠČANČAR, Janez, OSTERMAN, Tina, BUKOVEC, Nataša, MILAČIČ, Radmila. Critical appraisal of analytical procedures for the determination of Cr(VI) in dyed leathers by 1.5 diphenylcarbazide spectrophotometry after sample dilution or color removal. J. Am. Leather Chem. Assoc., 2007, vol. 102, str. 85-92.

VAHČIČ, Mitja, MILAČIČ, Radmila, MLADENOVIČ, Ana, MURKO, Simona, ZULIANI, Tea, ZUPANČIČ, Marija, ŠČANČAR, Janez. Leachability of Cr(VI) and other metals from asphalt composites with addition of filter dust. Waste manag. (Elmsford). [Print ed.], 2008, vol. 28, no. 12, str. 2667-2674. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2008.01.003.