Cation contents of acrocarpous and pleurocarpous mosses growing on a strontium-rich substratum

Abstract

Analyses of the strontium content of mosses have previously either been as part of general surveys of cation contents (Hancock & Brassard, 1974; Rastorfer, 1974; Shacklette, 1965) or as part of studies on the behaviour of radioactive fall-out (Polyakov, Leont'yer & Mel'nikov, 1962; Watson et al., 1966). Hebrard, Foulquier & Grauby (1972, 1974) have experimentally supplied radioactive strontium to Grimmia orbicularis under field and laboratory conditions. The agricultural significance of radiostrontium uptake as part of the food chain potentially leading to man and the chemical similarities with calcium, have stimulated much comparative work in the metabolism of calcium and strontium by higher plants (see for example Bollard & Butler, 1966; Myttenaere, 1965; Ringoet & De Zeeuw, 1968a, b. Russell, 1963; Schilling, 1960). Many studies emphasize the importance of cation binding by exchange reactions in determining the distribution of these two elements. The opportunity to study mosses growing on waste from a celestite (SrS04) mine at Yate Court, Avon (Bowen & Dymond (1955) studied the higher plants on the same waste) prompted an investigation into uptake of strontium under field conditions with a high strontium to calcium ratio.