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A Method for Determining Sulfur‐34 Abundance in Soil and Plant Sulfur Fractions
Author(s) -
Schoenau J. J.,
Bettany J. R.
Publication year - 1988
Publication title -
soil science society of america journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.836
H-Index - 168
eISSN - 1435-0661
pISSN - 0361-5995
DOI - 10.2136/sssaj1988.03615995005200010055x
Subject(s) - sulfur , abundance (ecology) , environmental science , combustion , chemistry , plant system , environmental chemistry , soil science , ecology , engineering , agricultural engineering , biology , organic chemistry
The variation in 34 S abundance has been shown to be a valuable tool in studying S cycling in natural systems. Unfortunately, the measurement procedure is complicated, and the existing literature lacks sufficient information to allow the method to be easily duplicated. We describe a simple system for preparing SO 2 for mass spectrometric analysis from different fractions of soil and plant S. The system employs a Johnson‐Nishita apparatus to convert soil S to Ag 2 S and a compact vacuum combustion system to convert Ag 2 S to SO 2 . Standard deviations of 0.1 to 0.4‰ were typical for soil and plant S fractions.