Selenium adsorption in soils as influenced by different anions

Studies on selenium adsorption were conducted on seleniferous and non‐seleniferous soils of north‐west India. Soils were equilibrated with graded levels of Se ranging from 1 to 100 μg ml^—1 tagged with ⁷⁵Se in the presence of sulphate, nitrate and phosphate ions, generally being applied to soils as inorganic fertilizers. The adsorption of Se on different soils, both in the presence and absence of competing anions, increased with increase in the level of Se added. Adsorption of Se conformed to Langmuir equation. In the absence of any competing anions, adsorption maxima of Se for different soils ranged from 270 to 461 μg g^—1. The corresponding values decreased appreciably in the presence of competing anions; per cent decrease ranged from 3 to 21 at 10 μg SO₄‐S ml^—1, from 8 to 40 at 60 μg NO₃‐N ml^—1 and 32 to 56 at 15 μg H₂PO₄‐P ml^—1. The bonding energy of Se in different soils decreased by 33 to 66 per cent in the presence of only phosphate ions. The changes in bonding energy were inconsistent in the case of nitrate and sulphate ions. At equal concentration of added P and Se, the amount of P adsorbed was 2 to 3 times the amount of Se adsorbed. With increasing concentration of Se, greater amounts of S were released in the equilibrium solution. The distribution coefficients (K_d) decreased significantly in the presence of different anions; the effect was conspicuous in the case of phosphate ions.