Ecological Soil Characterization of the Delta Creek and Washington Impact Areas, Fort Greely, Alaska

摘要

Munitions use on military lands is of keen environmental interest primarily due to the potential for contamination from unexploded ordnance (UXO) constituents, Explosive fillers such as Trinitrotoluene (TNT), Royal Demolition Explosive (RDX), and High Melting Explosive(HMX) are subject to environmental fate and transport congruent with the ecological setting into which they are released, Key environmental processes are dissolution, adsorption and chelation processes and biological action, The expected soil component responses might be recovery from cratering through organic matter inputs, and the assimilation and transformation of explosive compound contamination within the soil matrix, The spatial and temporal characteristics of munitions disturbance and important ecotype soil quality attributes were examined for an Army range impact area at Ft Greely, AK, Forty-eight control plots, twelve impact area plots, and five craters were examined, Cation exchange capacity (CEO) was highly correlated to soil organic matter (SOM) and there appears to be a significant gradient of soil quality characteristics for craters, Characterizing the distribution and dynamics of SOM may improve ecosystem management in the face of evolving contaminant threats, Once SOM for a particular system is characterized it can then be readily modeled and used as a resiliency metric for use in management decision models.