Life cycle assessment of arsenic from poultry feed to agricultural crops

• Author / Creator

  Gupta, Sanjay Kumar

• A series of experiments were conducted to study the fate and distribution of arsenic (As) when it passes through various components of biosphere. Roxarsone, an As containing compound is added to poultry feed for enhanced feed utilization. Mass balance calculations revealed that chickens excreted ~80% of ingested As into poultry manure. A high dose of As-containing poultry litter was applied to silt-loam and loam soils to study As distribution. Sequential extraction analyses revealed that ~60% of applied As remained in highly labile water soluble fraction. Mobility of As was found more in loam soil. To study its translocation from soil to plants, barley and canola plants were grown in litter-amended soils in a growth chamber. More As was taken up from loam soil, and by canola than barley. This study suggested that As moved from poultry feed to crop plants, accumulated in roots and shoots but rarely concentrated in grains.

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Arsenic in poultry litter
  • Arsenic fractionation in soils amended with poultry litter
  • Arsenic uptake by the plants from poultry litter amended soils

• Graduation date

  Spring 2014

• Type of Item

  Thesis

• Degree

  Master of Science

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R3Q52FK77

• License

  This thesis is made available by the University of Alberta Libraries with permission of the copyright owner solely for non-commercial purposes. This thesis, or any portion thereof, may not otherwise be copied or reproduced without the written consent of the copyright owner, except to the extent permitted by Canadian copyright law.