Transfer characteristic of fluorine from atmospheric dry deposition, fertilizers, pesticides, and phosphogypsum into soil

Abstract Fluorine (F) is widely dispersed in the environment and frequently used in industry and agriculture with a high migration ability. Thus, it is essential to understand the leaching characteristic of F in soil from industry and agriculture sources. Several sources of F pollutants in soil, including fertilizers, pesticides, phosphogypsum, and atmospheric deposition, were selected to investigate leaching characteristics of F in soil by leaching experiments. The addition of phosphate fertilizer and compound fertilizer (N:P:K = 20:10:15) enhanced the leachability of F in soil and the proportion of F leached out from soil treated by these fertilizers were 0.25% and 0.24%, respectively. However, unanticipated lower leachability of F appeared in compound fertilizer (N:P:K = 17:17:17), nitrogen fertilizer, dipterex, fluoroglycofen, fluopimomide, simulative dry deposition (YF3), and phosphogypsum loaded soils compared with additive-absent treatment. Although phosphogysum had a high F concentration, minimum proportion of F released (0.18%) was observed in phosphogypsum-coverd soil. The amounts of F leaching-out from surface soils (0–25 cm) treated with nitrogen fertilizer decreased 1.03 kg ha−1 comparing with blank control. Soil with phosphate fertilizer leached 5.47 kg F ha−1 a year, having the highest environment risk to deeper soil and groundwater. However, phosphogypsum and dry deposition of airbone F chemical had few effects on F leaching in soil. F-containing materials from agricultural process may leach more F from surface soils than industrial sources.