VARIATION OF THE RARE-EARTH ELEMENT CONCENTRATIONS IN THE SOIL, SOIL EXTRACT AND IN INDIVIDUAL PLANTS FROM THE SAME SITE

Samples of various types (spruce needles, blackberry leaves, soils, an d soil extracts) have each been taken at 6 places from the same site. In addition, 4 whirls each from 2 spruce trees were sampled. Rare eart h elements (REEs) were determined in these samples by neutron activati on analysis with a chemical group separation. Variations between place s were found to be small with soils and soil extracts, but large with plants. Variations between whirls were small. Plants neither reflected the soil nor the soil extract. Both plant species were dissimilar, bu t the logarithm of their ratio was a linear function of the atomic num ber of the REE. A negative Ce anomaly (with respect to soil) was found in both plant species.